Blue Coat, 17 others to combat threats in encrypted traffic

BENGALURU: Global security solutions provider, Blue Coat Systems Inc. has added seven new partners to the Blue Coat Encrypted Traffic Management (ETM) Ready Program, bringing the total number of partners to 17 to help customers expose and combat threats hiding in encrypted traffic .

This group with all leading security vendors forms the largest industry collaboration to help customers expose and combat threats hiding in encrypted traffic while also protecting privacy and ensuring compliance. Launched in March 2015, the ETM Ready Program is designed to prepare and certify Blue Coat Technology Alliance Partners to integrate SSL visibility solutions into the Blue Coat architecture, resulting in best-in-class security products to effectively detect and eliminate the hidden threats in encrypted traffic.

The new members include eSentire, Gigamon, LogRhythm, ManagedMethods, Symantec, TopSpin Security and Trend Micro join founding ETM Ready partners CA Technologies, Cyphort, Damballa, Fidelis Cybersecurity, HP, Lastline, RSA, SafeNet Inc. (now Gemalto), Venafi and VSS Monitoring.

According to Blue Coat Labs research, of the top 10 most visited web sites, 100 percent of them use HTTPS, or encrypted traffic, rendering 100 percent of that traffic invisible to all security devices unless it is decrypted. Blue Coat points out that today, the number of both business and consumer websites using SSL encryption as the default for securing all data in transit continues to grow.

The growing use of encryption to address privacy concerns is creating a perfect set of conditions for cyber criminals to hide malware inside encrypted transactions. In fact, Blue Coat researchers have found that it often reduces the level of sophistication required for malware to avoid detection; thereby making it easier for malware to get onto the network. The Blue Coat researchers found that over a typical seven-day period, out of 1.1 million new sites identified and classified, over 40,000 requests were newly-classified malicious HTTPS sites and 100,000 requests – or approximately 10 percent to Command-and-Control HTTPS sites were already infected.

Explaining in detail, Blue Coat employees indicated that ETM Ready Program has been designed to enable Blue Coat technology partners to build solutions that help combat security threats hidden in encrypted traffic while preserving privacy, policy and regulatory compliance. By integrating their products with the Blue Coat SSL Visibility Appliance, Blue Coat technology partners’ products can offer certified solutions to detect, prevent and eliminate the hidden threats in encrypted traffic.

“Encryption is the tool of choice to protect privacy. But it is also quickly becoming yet another method of attack across the threat landscape,” said Peter Doggart, Vice President of business development for Blue Coat. “Our customers are telling us that protecting employee and customer data is critical, but they also need to protect their network and the sky-rocketing use of encryption is hindering their ability to do so. Blue Coat and our ETM Ready partners are working to ensure enterprises can protect both privacy and their networks even as their use of encryption grows.”