Which technology is commonly used to secure browser traffic by encrypting the data in transit?

• A. IPsec VPN
• B. HTTPS/TLS encryption
• C. SSH
• D. Tor

Answer: (B)

Securing browser traffic by encrypting data in transit is achieved with HTTPS/TLS. When you connect to a website over HTTPS, your browser and the server perform a TLS handshake to establish a secure channel. They agree on a protocol version and a cipher suite, the server presents a certificate from a trusted authority to prove its identity, and they derive a shared session key. All HTTP data is then encrypted with that key, so requests and responses can’t be read or tampered with by on-path observers, and the server’s identity can be verified. This provides confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity for web traffic, and often includes forward secrecy to protect past sessions.

For the other options: a VPN like IPsec would encrypt traffic across an entire network tunnel rather than the typical web browsing path; SSH is for secure remote access and file transfers, not standard web traffic; Tor offers anonymity through a multi-hop network and its own encryption, but it’s not the common method browsers use to secure normal browser traffic in transit. HTTPS/TLS is the standard mechanism used to secure browser traffic.