Random Nerd Tutorials presents a quick and simple introduction to HTTPS and SSL/TLS encryption with the ESP32 and ESP8266 NodeMCU boards. They take a look at some concepts and terms that you’ve probably heard before but you might not know exactly what they mean: HTTPS, SSL/TLS, certificates, asymmetric and symmetric key encryption, and more.

Why do you need HTTPS?

Using HTTPS ensures the following:

• Privacy: no one can spy on your requests and passwords because the messages are encrypted.
• Integrity: the message is not manipulated on its way to its destination (prevents men-in-the-middle) attacks.
• Identification: when using HTTPS, via SSL certificates, you ensure you are connected to the server you would expect.

What is SSL/TLS?

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer and TLS stands for Transport Layer Security. These are two protocols used for secured encryption. SSL is currently deprecated. TLS 1.3 is currently the most recent protocol used for secure encryption on the web.

Read the tutorial here.