In January 1999 the IETF publishes RFC 2246, defining TLS 1.0 as the open, standardized successor to Netscape's SSL protocol, correcting structural vulnerabilities. All SSL versions are eventually declared insecure and obsolete. The standard evolves through TLS 1.1 (2006), 1.2 (2008), and 1.3 (RFC 8446, 2018), which streamlines the handshake, improving security and latency. TLS is the technical prerequisite for HTTPS, e-commerce, online banking, and confidential communication on the public network.