Cybercriminals are increasingly relying on SSL certificates to lull people into a false sense of security when clicking malicious links. The assumption that HTTPS links and the accompanying lock icon protect employees from attack can threaten businesses without sufficient SSL inspection.

Nearly 52% of the top 1 million websites were available over HTTPS in 2019, Menlo Security researchers report. Nearly all (96.7%) user-initiated online visits are served over HTTPS; however, only 57.7% of URLs in emails are HTTPS links. This means a web proxy or next-gen firewall — which many businesses have long relied on for online access visibility and control, researchers note — could miss the threats present on malicious websites if SSL inspection is not enabled.