(April 6, 2020)

Asymmetric encryption is used during the “handshake”, which takes place prior to any data being sent. The handshake determines which cipher suite to use for the session – in other words, the symmetric encryption type – so that both browser and server agree. The TLS 1.2 protocol took multiple round trips between client and server, while TLS 1.3 is a much smoother process that requires only one trip. This latency saving shaves milliseconds off each connection.