The number of applications that use SSL for security is expected to continue to grow in size, according to a Palo Alto Network report. However, there are some drawbacks, particularly for security professionals who dislike the lack of visibility into encrypted traffic, says Scott Crawford at Enterprise Management Associates.

Crawford also notes that security professionals are concerned that any technology that automates the application of security could allow hackers to manipulate systems and conceal their activity. There are several things that security professionals can do to cope with the growing use of applications that use encryption, including using technologies that can detect activity by botnets and correlate attempts to establish connections with compromised or malicious nodes or recognized points of command-and-control, regardless of whether or not those connection attempts are encrypted, Crawford says.

He notes that security professionals also can use proxies to partially inspect traffic to ensure that it is not malicious.