CompTIA Cloud+ Practice Test

What is the most common protocol for encrypting data in transit over the web?

1. MD5

2. TLS

3. IPsec

4. VPN

The correct answer is: TLS

The most common protocol for encrypting data in transit over the web is TLS, which stands for Transport Layer Security. TLS is designed to provide secure communication over a computer network, ensuring that data transferred between users and websites remains private and unaltered. It encrypts the data being sent, protecting it from eavesdropping and tampering by malicious actors. TLS is widely adopted as it not only secures web traffic but also supports various applications that require secure data transmission, making it the backbone of HTTPS, which is the secure version of HTTP. As such, when users connect to websites that utilize HTTPS, they are inherently using TLS to secure their data. In contrast, while MD5, IPsec, and VPNs all play roles in data security, they do not serve as the primary protocol for encrypting data in transit over the web. MD5 is primarily a hashing algorithm, which is not a form of encryption. IPsec is a suite of protocols for securing Internet Protocol communications but is used mainly in site-to-site VPN configurations rather than direct web communications. VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) use various protocols, including IPsec and SSL/TLS, to establish a secure connection over a less secure network, but they are not a protocol