Encrypted Cyber Attacks Surge: 87% of Threats Now Hidden In HTTPS Traffic

Recent research by cloud security firm Zscaler highlights the growing use of encryption by cybercriminals.

The widespread adoption of HTTPS encryption across the internet has created new challenges for cybersecurity teams.

While encryption safeguards legitimate traffic, it also enables malicious actors to hide their activities from traditional security tools, complicating the balance between data privacy and threat detection.

The study by Zscaler revealed that 87% of cyber threats now utilize encrypted channels, a 10% increase from the previous year, as reported by Cyber Magazine.

These findings, derived from the analysis of 32.1 billion blocked threats between October 2023 and September 2024, underscore how attackers are exploiting HTTPS protocols to evade detection, says Cyber Magazine.

The rise in encrypted attacks coincides with increased adoption of cloud services and remote work solutions, which expand the attack surface for organizations.

Traditional security methods struggle to inspect encrypted traffic at scale, leaving potential blind spots in enterprise defenses, notes Cyber Magazine.

“The rise in encrypted attacks is a real concern as a significant share of threats are now delivered over HTTPS,” said Deepen Desai, Chief Security Officer at Zscaler, as reported by Cyber Magazine.

He emphasized the importance of implementing zero trust architecture and large-scale TLS/SSL inspection to counter these sophisticated attacks. Cyber Magazine reports that the manufacturing sector emerged as the most targeted industry, with 42% of detected encrypted attacks.

This marks a 44% year-on-year increase, driven by the sector’s adoption of connected systems and Industry 4.0 technologies. Technology, communications, services, education, and retail sectors also faced significant threats.

Geographically, the United States recorded the highest number of encrypted attacks, at 11 billion incidents, followed by India with 5.4 billion. France, the United Kingdom, and Australia were also among the most affected nations, as reported by Cyber Magazine.

Malware accounted for 86% of encrypted attacks, with notable variants such as AsyncRAT and Atomic Stealer exploiting encrypted channels, reports Cyber Magazine.

Web-based attacks surged, with cryptomining up 123% and phishing increasing by 34%. Researchers suggest AI tools may be fueling this growth, reports Cyber Magazine.

Zscaler recommends full TLS/SSL inspection and microsegmentation as critical defenses. Its Zero Trust Exchange platform offers security measures across all stages of an attack, from reconnaissance to data exfiltration.

“With threat actors focused on exploiting encrypted channels to deliver advanced threats and exfiltrate data, organisations must implement a zero trust architecture,” Desai added, as reported by Cyber Magazine.