The Implications of Encrypted Web Traffic for Security
When it comes to security, it would seem like encryption is a good thing, right? Encryption is a good tool for protecting the confidentiality of your information, but (as the trend of ransomware has shown us) it has a down side. Secrecy can work for the the good guys and the bad guys both. Securing your network requires being aware of what is going on and what communications take place, and encryption can make that difficult. Just a few years ago, encryption on the web was used primarily just for logins and for sensitive parts of session, such as payments. However, that began to change in 2010 when Google changed Gmail to use HTTPS by default. That was followed by Facebook and Google search going to HTTPS by default in 2011 (Google completed the switch in 2012), Twitter in 2012, YouTube in 2014, and Wikipedia in 2015. Netflix has announced their intention to move entirely to HTTPS, but currently most of their actual streaming is still un-encrypted. Currently, most networks see more...