A Zscaler research report has shown that 54 percent of threats blocked in its internet security cloud are hidden in SSL traffic, with 600,000 malicious activities per day using SSL.
Today, more than half of the internet traffic is already HTTPS encrypted for the sake of higher security. However, the encrypted traffic is used by cyber-criminals as well to hide their malicious activities from detection.
“Though the introduction of SSL encryption was well-intentioned and used to improve – rather than hinder – our security approaches, the fact that cyber-criminals have now caught up and are using SSL traffic to hide malicious activity, presents a very real threat. In fact, we’re starting to see an increase in all types of malicious SSL traffic, from exploit kits and malware and adware distribution to malware callbacks, and we expect this trend to continue,” said Chris Hodson, EMEA CISO at Zscaler.