Which protocol secures web traffic?

• A. SSH
• B. IPsec
• C. TLS
• D. FTP

Answer: (C)

Securing web traffic is achieved with TLS, which provides encryption, integrity, and authentication for the connection between a browser and a web server. When you see HTTPS in a URL, TLS is doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes: a TLS handshake negotiates the version and cipher, authenticates the server with a certificate, and establishes a session key to encrypt every byte of HTTP data. This means your pages, forms, and any sensitive information stay confidential and tamper-evident as they travel over the internet.

SSH is for secure remote access and file transfer, not for web page delivery. IPsec works at the network layer to protect IP packets—great for VPNs but not the standard mechanism browsers use to secure web traffic. FTP is an older file transfer protocol and, in its basic form, transfers data in cleartext; it is not used to secure typical web browsing. Therefore, TLS is the protocol that secures web traffic.