I love video workshops. I especially love video workshops that are archived. If the materials are sophisticated (this one has some tough stuff!), I can watch until I hit a wall and then take time to reflect or look in a dictionary somewhere. The frosting is a narrator who doesn’t sound like a bored GPS voice. The video is about 1-1/2 hours long.

Transport layer security (TLS) is, according to the presenter, Eric Rescorla, the Internet’s most important security protocol. The originator of TLS was Netscape, and the protocol originally was intended for secure use of credit cards over the Internet. However, that usage has been extended over the past 20 years of its existence.

The video workshop, produced by Stanford University’s Center for Professional Development and written and narrated by Rescorla, as previously stated, consists of the following topics:

(1) Background and review of TLS;

(2) Some problems with TLS;

(3) Objectives for TLS 1.3 (the version currently being worked on);

(4) What does TLS 1.3 look like?; and

(5) Open issues.

The presenter then proceeds to discuss these bullets in detail. Some of the subtopics discussed include: background and review, rules for connection, handshake and record protocol, components of a cipher suite, and elements of TLS 1.2. These are just a few of the extremely sophisticated elements of versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3.

Though informative, the video is not meant for the amateur. However, the viewer with a thorough background in computer hardware and software engineering will find it enlightening.