SSL was developed Netscape Communications Corporation to improve security and privacy of HTTP transactions.
SSL is one of the most common protocols used to protect Internet traffic.
It encrypts the messages using symmetric algorithms, such as IDEA, DES, 3DES, and Fortezza, and also calculates the MAC for the message using MD5 or SHA-1. The MAC is appended to the message and encrypted along with the message data.
The exchange of the symmetric keys is accomplished through various versions of Diffie–Hellmann or RSA. TLS is the Internet standard based on SSLv3. TLSv1 is backward compatible with SSLv3. It uses the same algorithms as SSLv3; however, it computes an HMAC instead of a MAC along with other enhancements to improve security.
The following are incorrect answers:
"EDI transactions" is incorrect. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is not the best answer to this question though SSL could play a part in some EDI transactions.
"Telnet transactions" is incorrect. Telnet is a character mode protocol and is more likely to be secured by Secure Telnet or replaced by the Secure Shell (SSH) protocols.
"Eletronic payment transactions" is incorrect. Electronic payment is not the best answer to this question though SSL could play a part in some electronic payment transactions.
Reference(s) used for this question:
Hernandez CISSP, Steven (2012-12-21). Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK, Third Edition ((ISC)2 Press) (Kindle Locations 16615-16619). Auerbach Publications. Kindle Edition.
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security
