Definition
Plain language
The older name for the encryption that makes web traffic private — now technically replaced by TLS, but the name stuck in software settings.
As stated in the literature
Secure Sockets Layer, the predecessor to TLS; its name persists in APIs and flags such as the verify option that controls certificate validation.
Why it matters: The stale name is a small usability trap: the setting that controls whether a connection is actually authenticated hides behind an old label many developers skim past.
For example, a programmer turning off security in a web request often writes something like "verify equals false" in a library whose option is still named after SSL, decades after TLS replaced it.