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In todays modern computing field lots of terms get thrown around rather frequently such as SSL, HTTP, FTP, and SSH just to mention a few. I myself didn’t know what SSH meant until recently when I began experimenting with server grade operating systems and remotely patching into the systems for administration purposes. I figured if I was confused about a few terms then there might be a few other people that could use a little bit of clearing up.

SSH

SSH stands for Secure Shell which is a series of protocols and networking standards that permit remote desktop access to operating systems. SSH lets users patch into a computer that can be located in another room located on another continent and the users control the computer via command line interface. SSH can be very crucial for large computing environments such as webserving datacenters, dense research environments, and remote desk customer service.

SSL

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer which is the predecessor of TLS (Transport Layer Security). These two protocols are the two dominate protocols used for creating secure connections over the Internet for services such as e-mail. SSL version 3.0 was originally introduced in 1996 by Netscape for creating secure connections over the Internet. SSL has been endorsed by many major corporations which has helped introduce it as the Internet standard.

HTTPS

HTTPS is simply a Hypertext Terminal Protocol with a secure connection for the specific port and IP address. HTTPS is widely used over the Internet to setup secure and encrypted connections to handle sensitive situations such as credit card transactions, bank transfers, and social security number transfers. Unfortunately HTTPS only means the connection itself is secure, the server that the connection is hooked up to may not be secure itself so your information security may not be as secure as you might think.

FTP

FTP or File Transfer Protocol is the basis for transferring files from one computer to another. When an HTTP connection isn’t used for transferring files FTP is generally used. FTP is commonly used to upload files to servers such as this specific server that you are currently connected to. FTP is a completely unsecure connection so anyone that is sniffing the packets that leave your connection can pick up your packets and assemble the files you are sending.

Conclusion

I hope that helped a few people out, I didn’t go into much depth but who really needs to know the encryption techniques and the dates of implementation of these protocols? That’s about it, hope you guys enjoyed it. I’ve been busy lately so I apologize for the lack of updates, trying to do fifty things at one time.