SSL Still Mostly Misunderstood, Even By the Pros

An anonymous reader writes "People still don't understand SSL. This isn't much of a surprise... no one expects that grandma and grandpa know what SSL is and what it does. What is surprising and downright scary is that most IT professionals don't understand SSL, and many consider it to be the be-all, end-all of security in their organization. With all the tools out there to manipulate SSL connections, and the browser vendors unable to settle on a single method of showing if a site is secured by SSL or not, is it any wonder that no one gets it?"

Comments

I'm a Pro

[Anonymous Coward]

What is SSL anyway?

Re:I'm a Pro

[Pieroxy]

We will all mourn your sense of humour. What a pity...

Oh well, you can adopt another one. It will never be the same, but it'll be there when you need it!

Re:Moderators, are you all friggin' retards?

[Stachybotris]

no one expects that grandma and grandpa know how to what SSL is and what it does.

I just consider this sort of typo a cheap and lazy form of story encryption...

OpenSSL: [STILL INCOMPLETE]

[Futurepower(R)]

The OpenSSL web site lists "[STILL INCOMPLETE]" for each of its manuals.

Re:OpenSSL: [STILL INCOMPLETE]

[MrMr]

Why do you want a manual?
Just modify the source until it does what you expected.

Re:Moderators, are you all friggin' retards?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey! I *do* know how to what.

It is what to how which is somehow not what you will.

xtracto

SSL has 7 times as many hits as TLS

[tepples]

Good luck. Google has 9,610,000 hits for ssl certificate and 1,350,000 hits for tls certificate.

Re:Moderators, are you all friggin' retards?

[OakDragon]

What can't they most the least?

Re:Moderators, are you all friggin' retards?

[rockbottoms]

I just consider this sort of typo a cheap and lazy form of story encryption...

I just except the typos for what they are

Re:You're doing it wrong

[KnownIssues]

It seems you've all proved the article's point. SSL still mostly misunderstood.

Re:Moderators, are you all friggin' retards?

[TheRaven64]

Hmm, you're probably still just new enough to be making that mistake. Slashdot readers go through various development stages, like insects:

1. New users read the articles.
2. Then they stop reading the articles, and just read the summary.
3. After a while, they stop reading even the summary, and just read the headlines.
4. Finally, they stop even reading the comments that they are replying to, and just paste links to goatse or stories about CmdrTaco'ssex life.

Re:Of course IT proffessionals don't get it

[DavidTC]

No kidding. How hard would it be for the router to actually vaguely explain what OSes can be expected to understand each type of encryption, and which you should use unless you have Specific Older Device or have discovered that some device you have doesn't work. What, do they have 32k of firmware room and no space for explanations?

Of course, most router control panels appear designed by idiots anyway.

Re:SSL is trying to do too much.

[argent]

Everyone knows the world will end in 2012.

Oh come on, nobody's using that old stone circle computer technology any more. Half of the Machu Picchu site is missing, they've lost the Nazca Plain key server, Avesbury is completely trashed (half the stones there are uncalibrated replacements), and Stonehenge was originally just a backup ring in case the Avon flooded: I bet you couldn't get a millithaum per second out of it even on the equinox AND with a FULL team of chanters on hand.

Re:As usual, no one wants to be the leader.

[onemorechip]

And neither the Slashdot summary or the article to which Slashdot links is willing to link to documentation.

Please stop anthropomorphizing the article and summary. They hate that!