What is a main difference between TLS and SSL according to the material?

• A. TLS uses slightly different encryption algorithms than SSL.
• B. TLS operates at the transport layer and SSL operates at the application layer.
• C. TLS uses the same algorithms as SSL.
• D. TLS does not support certificates.

Answer: (A)

The main difference is that TLS uses different encryption algorithms (cipher suites) than SSL. TLS is the successor to SSL and updates the set of allowed ciphers and key-exchange methods, offering newer, stronger options (for example, modern TLS commonly uses AES or ChaCha20-Poly1305 with forward-secret key exchange), whereas SSL relied on older, less secure algorithms. This is why TLS is considered an improved version with different algorithm choices.

The other statements don’t fit: TLS and SSL both operate between the transport and application layers and both use certificates for authentication, so the idea that TLS operates at a different layer or that TLS doesn’t support certificates isn’t accurate.