Understanding encryption protocols

Hashing, symmetric, and asymmetric encryption are building blocks that are used to support applications and protocols that need to secure how data is stored and transmitted. Many processes will use a cipher suite, drawing on the strengths of the different types of encryption. We depend on these protocols to protect users when we're accessing online banking, remotely accessing the workplace, protecting information systems when they must be administered across a network, and ensuring that emails that are sent and received can be trusted. We will look at some of these common protocols in the following subsections.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS)

SSL/TLS is used to encrypt many application layer protocols, such as HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, LDAP, and many more. It provides confidentiality (through encryption) and integrity (through HMAC). It uses hybrid cryptography through a suite of protocols. SSL is no longer used as it...