The Java platform's security and encryption features have grown tremendously over the last few years. The JDK 1.4 (a.k.a. Merlin) release now comes bundled with many security-related packages, including the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE), the Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE), and the Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS). All of these components are pieces of the Java Cryptography Architecture (JCA), as illustrated in the figure below:

In this tutorial we'll mostly be working with the JSSE component of the JCA.