Introduction to TLS

Overview

TLS (Transport Layer Security) aka SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the encryption security measure that enables browsers to recognize a website as "secure". In modern browsers the SSL information can be accessed by clicking the padlock icon in the address bar.

TLS certificates are obtained from CAs (Certificate Authorities). Some free (as in price) CAs are Lets Encrypt, Buypass and ZeroSSL. You can request a TLS cert for your hostname using an Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME) client such as OpenBSD's acme-client.

Once a certificate has been requested, it can be used for encrypting connections to your servers (such as your web server or irc server).