Occasional data breaches that compromise the private information of a website’s users still occur, even though hacking a website is much more difficult today than it was thirty years ago.
Nearly all hosting providers include TLS/SSL certificates in their offers, meaning that your new WordPress website protects the data of its users from the moment you launch it.
When starting a new WordPress website, you needn’t worry about TLS vs. SSL comparisons because TLS is simply a better and more recent version of the SSL protocol.
Nowadays, the only thing you have to do to keep your website safe is check whether the hosting plan you choose includes the so-called SSL certificate.
We’ll walk you through everything you should know about the difference between SSL and TLS and show you how having this certificate can affect your website’s performance.
TLS VS SSL – What’s the Meaning and Purpose of These Protocols?
The first version of the SSL (Secure Socket Layers) protocol is almost as old as the Internet itself. It was developed in 1995 by Netscape, around the same time Microsoft released the now-retired Internet Explorer web browser.
SSL – The Key Facts About the SSL Protocol
This cryptographic protocol aims to verify the connection’s validity before transferring information between a website and the web browser. Consequently, the transmitted data is inaccessible to third parties, so hackers don’t have easy access to it.
- Netscape never released the first version of SSL due to security issues.
- The company published an improved SSL 2.0 version in 1995
- The SSL 3.0 version was released in 1996.
The SSL 3.0 version was the last version of the Secure Socket Layers protocol ever released. All versions of SSL have been deprecated since 2015.
The only security protocol a website can use since then is TLS or Transport Layer Security.
TLS – The Key Facts About the TLS Protocol
All websites currently use either the TLS 1.2 version, released in 2008, or the TLS 1.3 version, released in 2018.
- The TLS 1.0 version became available to the public in 1999, and at the time, it was an upgrade of the SSL 3.0.
- The TLS 1.1 update followed in 2006, but both TLS 1.0 and 1.1 variants were deprecated in 2020.
The Main Differences Between TLS vs SSL
The differences between TLS and SSL are highly technical as they concern how the protocol establishes a secure connection between a server and a browser.
TLS is an updated version of SSL, so their purpose is identical, as their task is to prevent unsecured connections.
- Most importantly, the TLS utilizes a different handshake process, the implicit connection, while all versions of SSL use the so-called explicit connection method.
- These protocols contain different cipher suites or algorithms that generate keys used to encrypt data circulating between a server and a browser. As a result, their message authentication processes are different.
The cipher suites on earlier versions of SSL and TLS contained four algorithms, but TLS 1.3’s cipher suite features only MAC and Bulk Data Encryption algorithms.
All variants of SSL protocol utilize the MD5 algorithm to generate message authentication codes (MACs). On the other hand, TLS protocol uses a more secure Hash-Based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) algorithm to create fixed-length codes they add to messages.
Alert Messages
TLS and SSL display different alert messages that show errors or warn a website visitor that a connection isn’t secure.
SSL can only display a warning or fatal alert message, while TLS displays an additional close notify alert message indicating the end of a session.
How Do TLS and SSL Protocols Work?
It’s challenging to understand SSL and TLS if you’re unfamiliar with the term HTTP.
- The term Hyper Transfer Protocol refers to the rules for online file transfers. In other words, this application layer protocol controls how text or multimedia files are retrieved from a server and displayed on a webpage.However, data is vulnerable to attacks during a standard HTTP transfer, which is why most websites use HTTPS (HTTP over SSL/TLS) to encrypt and authenticate the data during a transfer.
- Google developed HTTP/2, a revised version of the HTTP in 2015. Currently, HTTP/2 and TLS 1.3 are standard protocols used by Safari, Edge, Chrome, and other popular web browsers.
So, if your website has an SSL certificate, a web browser will perform a handshake when a visitor lands on one of its pages.
The Handshake Concept
The handshake process is one of the most significant differences between SSL and TLS protocols.
The term refers to the communication between the client (web browser) and the server.
SSL protocols utilized the handshake process that included several roundtrips between the client and server during which key exchange and authentication took place.
SSL handshakes relied on Port 443 or similar ports to establish an explicit connection. However, the explicit connection increases latency, one of the things HTTP/2 addresses, which is why TLS protocols switched to implicit connections.
TLS 1.3 version utilizes an implicit connection to send a ClientHello message to the server and receive the ServerHello message.
One of the greatest benefits of the TLS 1.3 protocol is that the client and server exchange keys during their first interaction, and enable the secure and immediate transfer of information.
TLS vs SSL Certificates – How Do They Work?
There’s no need to search for differences between a TLS certificate and an SSL certificate because their properties are the same regardless of how a hosting provider refers to them.
Even though SSL protocols are deprecated, most hosting providers still use the term SSL certificate to indicate that the data you upload to your website will be transferred with HTTPS.
However, the SSL certificate plays an important role in the communication between a server and a browser.
Communication between a web browser and a server takes place over the following stages:
- Authentication – A web browser and server exchange certificates when a user lands on a webpage.
- Encryption – During this stage, the key exchange takes place between the server and the client.
- Decryption – The server reads the key it receives from the browser and establishes a secure connection.
In other words, the client and the server first exchange their TSL/SSL certificates, and then a server generates a public key it sends to a browser.
After they exchange their certificates, a browser creates and encrypts a pre-master key it sends to the server that uses the public key to decipher the pre-master key, and establish a secure connection.
The certificate usually contains the most recent version of the TLS protocol. As noted earlier, Google Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge no longer support SSL protocols or early variants of TLS protocols.
Hence, you shouldn’t be confused by SSL certificates even though their name can be misleading.
Their name doesn’t reflect their properties since all hosting providers and Certificate Authorities issue certificates capable of establishing a connection between a client and a server through a TLS or SSL protocol.
Types of TLS/SSL Certificate Validation Levels
The easiest way to check if your WordPress website has an SSL certificate is to open it in a new tab and look for the padlock icon in the left corner of the address bar. Here’s a quick overview of the process:
- Clicking on the padlock icon will enable you to see which type of SSL certificate your website has and its validation level.
- You can check the certificate’s version, serial number, or which signature algorithm it uses from the Detail tab.
The same information should be available in the Security tab on your hosting account.
Most providers offer domain-validated certificates (DV) that protect a single domain, but you can also obtain certificates that work on multiple domains or subdomains.
In addition, businesses that want to establish their online legitimacy can get an:
- Organization Validated (OV) SSL Certificate
- Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificate.
Websites that process vast quantities of sensitive data can benefit from obtaining an OV certificate because a more rigorous vetting process helps establish the organization’s and website’s authority.
A business must provide documentation that proves its legitimacy and domain ownership when applying for an OV or EV SSL certificate. A Certificate Authority might also require a company to complete the verification process during a telephone call and meet a few other requirements.
The Benefits of TLS and SSL Protocols
Besides safety, an SSL certificate can affect search rankings, bounce rates, and other website metrics, while the absence of this certificate can undermine its authority.
Search Engine Rankings and Website Metrics
SSL certificates have been a ranking factor on Google since 2014, and websites that don’t have the certificate cannot rank on this search engine. What’s more, Google labels all websites without SSL certificates that collect credit card or login details as unsafe.
Safety Concerns
Running a website without an SSL certificate won’t affect its performance on search engines because it can expose it to phishing attacks, data leaks, and other types of cyberattacks.
Compliance Issues
You might also face noncompliance issues if you don’t install TLS protocol, or use an expired SSL certificate on your website because PCI SSC requires all sites that process credit card data to have a valid SSL certificate.
Hence, the benefits of TLS and SSL protocols extend far beyond safe data transfers, as they guarantee a website’s trustworthiness for search engines and Internet users.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Have to Install an SSL Certificate by Myself?
A hosting provider usually installs an SSL certificate on the website’s server after you purchase a hosting plan, and connect it to a domain. Still, you can also get a DV, OV, or EV SSL certificate from a CA, and install it on your site’s server by yourself.
Can I Remove TLS From My Website?
You can uninstall the TLS protocol and SSL certificate from your website, but doing so isn’t advisable unless you replace it with a different type of SSL certificate.
Do SSL Certificates Expire?
SSL certificates can have an expiration date unless your hosting provider issues a lifetime SSL certificate. You must renew your certificate before it expires to avoid compromising the data of your website’s users, and undermining its authority.
Keeping Your WordPress Website Safe with SSL Certificates
SSL protocols are ancient history in Internet years, as they were entirely replaced by TLS protocols almost a decade ago.
Despite the confusion caused by the nomenclature, the industry still uses the term SSL certificate even though the certificate features the most recent TLS protocols. Consequently, there’s no reason to worry about switching from an SSL to a TLS certificate.
The only thing you should worry about is ensuring that your WordPress has an SSL certificate because you won’t be able to rank it on popular search engines without it.
We hope our article has helped you understand the difference between SSL and TLS and why having an SSL certificate is important for your WordPress website.
Please go through our guide to the Wordfence plugin if you’re looking for ways to improve your website’s security.
