As the use of SSL grows to the point where it’s the standard protocol, cybercriminals are increasingly using encryption to conceal and launch attacks. This has become possible because SSL certificates, which used to be difficult to obtain, are now readily available at no charge.

Zscaler released the 2019 Cloud Security Insights Threat Report – An Analysis of SSL/TLS-based threats, which examines encrypted traffic across the Zscaler cloud from July through December 2018. The report, compiled by the Zscaler ThreatLabZ research team, delves into a variety of attacks executed over SSL and blocked by Zscaler, including phishing attacks, botnets, browser exploitation, and malicious content.