Image via WikipediaSecurity researchers are buzzing about the flaws in the Secure Sockets Layer system and the fact that a significant portion of the Internet is vulnerable to attack. At the recent Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, there were several reports and panels addressing various issues.
Based on the PKI (public key infrastructure), the SSL protocol has grown "organically" to become nearly ubiquitous within the world's largest organizations to keep Internet communications secure, Jeff Hudson, CEO of Venafi, told eWEEK.
However, less than a fifth of Websites claiming to have SSL deployed correctly redirect traffic, according to a report released by Qualys at Black Hat. Of the nearly 250,000 sites with SSL turned on that were surveyed, only 51,000 were properly redirecting to SSL for authentication, according to the report from the Qualys community project, SSL Labs. The remaining 80 percent of the sites may or may not redirect to SSL, making them vulnerable to a man-in-the middle attack from Firesheep and other tools.
Overall, there has not been a lot of improvement worldwide in how SSL has been deployed over the past few years, Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO of Qualys, told eWEEK. Organizations are just rolling out SSL servers and not taking the time to ensure the servers are properly configured, the report found.
Courtot declined to specify any of the offenders, noting that the problem was widespread.
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