GIAC Exam GSEC Topic 1 Question 2 Discussion

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol used to transmit private documents via the Internet. SSL uses a combination of public key and symmetric encryption to provide communication privacy, authentication, and message integrity. Using the SSL protocol, clients and servers can

communicate in a way that prevents eavesdropping and tampering of data on the Internet. Many Web sites use the SSL protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. By convention, URLs that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http:. By default, SSL uses port 443 for secured communication.

Answer option C is incorrect. SSL can only secure the communication transport. Processing of credit cards cannot be done by SSL.