Majority of cyberattacks delivered over encrypted channels
In total, 86 percent of all cyber threats, including malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks, are delivered over encrypted channels, according to a new report.
The study from Zscaler also shows threats over HTTPS grew by 24 percent from 2022, underscoring the sophisticated nature of cybercriminal tactics that target encrypted channels.
For the second year in a row, manufacturing is the industry most commonly targeted, accounting for 31.6 percent of attacks, with education and government organizations seeing the highest year-on-year increase in attacks. Additionally, malware, which includes malicious web content and malware payloads, continues to dominate over other types of encrypted attacks, with ad spyware sites and cross-site scripting accounting for 78 percent of attacks blocked by the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange platform.
"With nearly 95 percent of web traffic flowing over HTTPS and 86 percent of the advanced threats delivered over encrypted channels, any HTTPS traffic that does not undergo inline inspection represents a significant blind spot that cybercriminals continue to exploit when targeting global organizations," says Deepen Desai, chief security officer at Zscaler. "To defend against encrypted attacks, organizations should replace vulnerable appliances, like VPNs and firewalls, with a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) solution. This allows IT teams to inspect TLS traffic at scale while blocking threats and preventing sensitive data leakage."
As smart factories and the Internet of Things become more prevalent in manufacturing, the attack surface is expanding and exposing the sector to more security risks and creating additional entry points that cybercriminals can exploit to disrupt production and supply chains. In addition, the use of popular generative AI applications, like ChatGPT, on connected devices in manufacturing heightens the risk of sensitive data leakage over encrypted channels.
You can get the Zscaler ThreatLabz 2023 State of Encrypted Attacks Report from the company's site.
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