Using Apache with SSL
The Secure Socket Layer and mod_ssl
After you have implemented authorization and access control for your Apache server, you will need to deal with another aspect of security: making the communications between the clients and your Web server private. This is done by encrypting the communications between the clients and the server, using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol.
This article gives an overview of the mechanisms that are used for secure communications, and it provides some information about the mod_ssl modification to Apache, which allows it to function as a secure Web server. This article also discusses some of the creation and manipulation of special data files that are used for secure communications.
In addition, the availability of SSL for use with your Web server creates some interesting dilemmas for governments that want to control encryption to avoid having it fall into the hands of foreign entities. This topic is discussed as well.