IT Security Guidelines for Transport Layer Security (TLS) v2.0

These guidelines are intended to aid during procurement, set-up and review of configurations of the Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS). TLS is the most popular protocol to secure connections on the Internet.

A newer version of the IT security guidelines for TLS is available. The information on this page is out of date.

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol for the establishment and use of a cryptographically secured connection between two computer systems, a client and a server. TLS is also known by its older name, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). TLS is applied in a large number of contexts. Well-known examples include web traffic (https), email traffic (IMAP and SMTP after STARTTLS) and certain types of virtual private networks (VPN).

This publication is also available in Dutch.