Blue Coat Systems, Inc., a leading provider of advanced web security solutions for global enterprises and governments, today announced findings from Blue Coat researchers that revealed a significant spike in malware hidden in SSL traffic, and released Blue Coat SSL Visibility Appliance SV3800B-20 model, a next-generation Encrypted Traffic Management (ETM) appliance to address this growing threat. Blue Coat SSL Visibility Appliance SV3800B-20 more than doubles the capacity of the company's original SSL visibility offering, making it an ideal tool for enterprises seeking to fortify their network defences against encrypted threats, while maintaining compliance with local privacy regulations and corporate policies.
58x Increase in SSL-Cloaked MalwareThe rapid adoption of cloud and mobile apps and services is driving an increase in SSL/TLS encrypted traffic as concerns around personal privacy grow. But this growing use of encryption is creating perfect conditions for cyber criminals to hide malware inside encrypted transactions. These advanced and increasingly serious threats employ hidden command and control (C&C)
channels to execute malicious programs and exfiltrate proprietary data.
Blue Coat researchers found a 58 times increase in SSL-cloaked traffic in C&C and a 200 times increase in C&C servers using SSL in 2015, indicating that SSL/TLS will be increasingly used in the future to hide attacks. These findings are highlighted in a
recent report from the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE, sponsored by Blue Coat.
As attacks increase exponentially, much of enterprise security infrastructure remains blind to encrypted traffic. Most intrusion prevention systems (IPS), malware sandboxing, data leakage prevention and other tools cannot decrypt SSL/TLS for analysis. Even many common SSL/TLS capable devices are limited in capability, are unable to scale, and increase the complexity of the problem. According to an NSS Labs report, the on-box SSL capability built into some network security products can reduce capacity of the box by up to 80 percent when SSL inspection is enabled, dramatically affecting user experience and leading to the need to expand capacity.
Release of SSL Visibility Appliance SV3800B-20 More than Doubles ThroughputBlue Coat's SSL Visibility Appliance increases throughput from four Gbps to nine Gbps, more than doubling capacity and addresses the security blind spot caused by SSL/TLS traffic. The appliance decrypts SSL/TLS once, and feeds multiple tools of the security infrastructure, providing the most cost-effective solution removing the SSL/TLS blind spot. The comprehensive policy-based solution utilises Blue Coat's Global Intelligence Network to selectively decrypt only targeted traffic, enabling enterprises to protect the privacy of employees while inspecting unknown, suspicious and known malicious content and adhering to legal, HR, financial and security compliance standards.
"Our researchers' findings reveal what many have long suspected - that SSL traffic as a primary channel for malware and exfiltration is dramatically increasing. In light of these growing threats, many organisations have realised that the balance between network performance and proper SSL inspection is not as simple as they had been led to believe by many of their network security providers," said Michael Fey, president and COO, Blue Coat Systems, Inc. "By providing dedicated SSL visibility, Blue Coat is helping customers combat security threats hidden in encrypted traffic while preserving the enterprise customers' priorities like network performance, user privacy and regulatory compliance that organisations today require."
Blue Coat has several educational resources related to ETM, including:
For more information on Blue Coat's SSL Visibility Appliance, its Encrypted Traffic Management solution set and other enterprise security solutions, please visit www.bluecoat.com.