HTTPS abusers hide malware in encrypted tunnels
The number of sites using encryption is rising, but it’s not all good news as the criminals are following suit
The latest set of statistics from the Let’s Encrypt project reveals that during January the number of HTTPS sites requested by Firefox users tipped over 50 percent for the first time. The knee-jerk reaction is to applaud this achievement as showing that the security message is increasingly understood. That green padlock, or whatever variation your browser client of choice uses, indicates that the page you are accessing has been delivered via HTTPS. Nothing less and certainly nothing more; it’s not a guarantee that the content is safe or the page is no threat to your security.
Things are never that clear cut in the world of cyber-crime and, as last year’s Hidden Threats in Encrypted Traffic report revealed, almost half of cyber attackers used encrypted traffic to evade detection.
