Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS)
Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS) is the security level for Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP) applications. Based
on Transport Layer Security (TLS) v1.0 (a
security layer used in the Internet, equivalent to Secure Socket Layer 3.1), WTLS was developed to
address the problematic issues surrounding mobile network devices - such as limited processing
power
and memory capacity, and low bandwidth - and to
provide adequate authentication,
data integrity, and privacy protection mechanisms.
Wireless transactions, such as those between a user and their bank, require stringent
authentication and encryption to ensure security to protect the communication from attack during
data transmission. Because mobile networks do not provide end-to-end security, TLS had to be
modified to address the special needs of wireless users. Designed to support datagrams in a high latency,
low bandwidth environment, WTLS provides an optimized handshake through dynamic key refreshing,
which allows encryption
keys to
be regularly updated during a secure session.
Contributor(s): Benjamin McCartney
This was last updated in May 2001
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