Secure Sockets Layer commonly known as SSL was developed by Netscape Communications Corporation and was publicly release in 1995 for secure transmission of information over the internet. Over the years SSL has gone through several revisions, version 1 was never released to public. Version 2 was release in 1995 and in 1996 a fully redesigned version 3 was released to address security weaknesses of the previous version.
Then the first version of an improved protocol called Transport Layer Security (TLS) was introduced in 1999, the two protocols had significant differences making them incompatible. TLS 1.1 was introduced in 2006 and TLS version 1.2 was introduced in 2008.
SSL (and TLS) is important to online businesses as it helps you to protect confidential information of customers such as user names, passwords and credit card information by encrypting it. Encryption modifies the information in such a way a hacker would find it difficult to read the actual information like the credit card number or password hidden inside the encrypted message.
To implement SSL on your online business site you need to purchase a Certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA). A certificate authority will confirm your identity before issuing a certificate. This certificate can then be used by your website for customers to confirm the identity of your site as well as protect the information they exchange with you. With SSL you can increase the customers trust in your online business which in turn can increase your revenue.