These include such foundational patents of the web as Secure Socket Layer (SSL), cookies and JavaScript.

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Eight years ago, fresh out of Stanford, Kocher cowrote Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), the protocol that secures the vast majority of commerce on the Internet.

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The report measures the rise of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption within corporate Internet traffic, as well as other applications that complicate filtering by hopping between ports and other programs that are purposefully designed to evade monitoring.

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Appelbaum, a developer for the Tor anonymity network and a past volunteer for WikiLeaks, says that SafeHouse insecurely implements Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption, the protection meant to render any data passed between a user and a website unreadable.

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Peterson believes he has a shot at signing up all the major senders and receivers of email, much as Verisign has made a business selling SSL certificates to secure websites.

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Last year independent hacker Moxie Marlinspike created a tool call SSLstrip to invisibly remove the SSL protections on secure sites when a user click through from an insecure site.

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While both SSL and TLS are by themselves secure, the security they offer can be undermined when they are poorly implemented by app developers.

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