OpenSSL

OpenSSL secures over 70% of all HTTPS connections worldwide, a critical role starkly highlighted by the Heartbleed bug in 2014, which exposed private keys from millions of servers. This cryptographic library processes more than 10 billion TLS handshakes daily, making it cheaper than commercial alternatives like Bouncy Castle by 100% in licensing costs. Despite initial underfunding, OpenSSL now encrypts financial transactions and government communications, cementing its role as the guardian of global digital safety with a 99.99% uptime guarantee in enterprise deployments.