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Top Myths About SSL Encryption

Learn what are some of the myths that persist about SSL traffic as well as the SSL bling spot

There is an increasing number of security professionals that are overconfident about the ability to handle security threats hidden in Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) communications. 85% of security professionals believe their organisations have this issue covered1, but at the same time only 20% of next-gen firewalls (NGFWs) and unified threat management solutions (UTMs) actually inspect SSL traffic, according to Gartner. Meanwhile Blue Coat Labs found dramatic increases in malware using SSL in the last two years*.

Some of the myths that persist about SSL traffic as well as the SSL blind spot are as follows

  • Myth #1: Traffic protected by SSL is safe traffic. In reality, hackers love hiding threats in SSL, and the use of SSL for exploits is growing faster than SSL itself. According to Gartner2, by 2017, more than 50% of network attacks targeting enterprises will use SSL.

    Myth #2: The use of SSL/TLS is holding steady. Wrong. NSS Labs3 predicts 20% growth in SSL traffic per year, and corporate adoption of cloud services and mobile apps are expected to accelerate this growth. Customers and partners in every industry segment supported by SSL also confirm its pervasiveness and rapid growth.
  • Myth #3: All we have to do is block access to unsavoury websites. Most threats actually come from legitimate websites—and many threats penetrate from inside the organisation. It’s important to selectively check both inbound and outbound SSL traffic, not just block access, to ensure secure communications and maintain continuity of operations.

To find out more about this topic, check out this Top 10 myth buster’s interactive guide . There are a lot of interesting stats and figures that will assist when dealing with the SSL blind spot.

* Between January 2014 and September 2015, more than 500 samples of malware families were seen to be using SSL each month. In the remaining three months of 2015 this figure soared to nearly 29,000 samples. A similar trend was observed in C&C servers: in Q3 2014, Blue Coat observed approximately 1,000 C&C servers using SSL, shooting up to over 200,000 observed in Q3 2015


12016 Cyberthreat Defense Report from CyberEdge.
2Gartner, Security Leaders Must Address Threats from Rising SSL Traffic, Jeremy D’Hoinne and Adam Hills. Published: 9 December 2013
36 J. W. Pirc, "SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement," NSS Labs, June 2013.