Brother International DCP-8155DN SSL Guide - English - Page 5

1 Introduction 1 Overview 1 1 Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is an effective method of protecting data which is sent over a local or wide area network. It works by encrypting data sent over a network, i.e. a print job, so anyone trying to capture it will not be able to read it as all the data will be encrypted. It can be configured on both wired and wireless networks and will work with other forms of security such as WPA keys and firewalls. Brief History of SSL 1 SSL was originally created to secure web traffic information, in particular data sent between web browsers and servers. For example, when you use Internet Explorer® for Internet Banking and you see https:// and the little padlock in the web browser, you are using SSL. It then grew to work with other applications such as Telnet, printers and FTP software in order to become a universal solution for online security. Its original design intentions are still being used today by many online retailers and banks to secure sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, customer records etc. SSL uses extremely high levels of encryption and is trusted by banks all over the world since it is unlikely that it will be broken. Benefits of using SSL 1 The sole benefit to using SSL on Brother machines is to provide secure printing over an IP network by restricting unauthorized users from being able to read data sent to the machine. Its key selling point is that it can be used to print confidential data securely. For example, a HR department for a large company may be printing wage slips on a regular basis. Without encryption, the data contained on these wage slips can be read by other network users. However, with SSL, anyone trying to capture the data will only see a confusing page of code and not the actual wage slip. 1