Revolutionizing TLS Inspection: How Cato Networks Is Transforming Encrypted Traffic Security 

Introduction 

In today’s digital environment, encrypted traffic has become the norm, with over 90% of web communications now utilizing encryption. While this secures data in transit, it has become a blind spot for enterprises, enabling attackers to hide malware within encrypted channels. According to the Q3 2024 Cato CTRL SASE Threat Report, organizations that enable TLS inspection block 52% more malicious traffic than organizations than don’t. Yet, only 45% of organizations inspect encrypted traffic, and merely 3% inspect all relevant sessions. 

The challenge lies in the operational complexity and risks associated with traditional TLS inspection solutions. 

The Need for TLS Inspection and Why Organizations Hold Back 

TLS inspection is indispensable for protecting users and data, enabling the enforcement of advanced security measures like Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP). Without it, organizations lose visibility into encrypted traffic, leaving their networks vulnerable. 

Think of TLS inspection like the sophisticated airport security screening machine: imagine if airport staff suddenly stopped using it to save time or avoid privacy concerns. This lack of inspection would open the door to potentially hazardous items passing through undetected, compromising the security of everyone. Similarly, TLS inspection is essential for keeping harmful content out of company networks. But many organizations hesitate to enable it, worried about operational slowdowns or legal challenges tied to inspecting encrypted traffic. By skipping TLS inspection, they unknowingly leave their networks exposed, unable to detect and secure a growing volume of potentially malicious traffic hidden within encrypted channels.

Cato Safe TLS Inspection: A Paradigm Shift  

Cato Networks’ new Safe TLS Inspection introduces a groundbreaking, first-to-market approach to inspecting encrypted traffic, fundamentally redefining the way TLS inspection is implemented. Traditional TLS inspection has posed challenges due to its operational complexity, application compatibility issues, and potential to disrupt user experience. Cato’s solution overcomes these limitations, making comprehensive TLS inspection not only practical but efficient and risk-free, unlocking full network visibility and protection without impacting performance. 

This first-of-its-kind solution simplifies and automates the inspection process, leveraging a data-driven model to inspect only encrypted traffic that is safe to inspect. Safe TLS inspection provides:  

1. Selective Inspection: Automatically identifies applications and domains safe for inspection, eliminating the need for exhaustive bypass lists. 

2. Crowdsourced Intelligence: apps and domains to inspect are selected using a global database of over 10,000 entries continuously updated in real-time. 

3. Automated Deployment: Configurations are applied with just a few clicks, based on best practices. 

Key benefits include: 

1. Better Protection: It unlocks the full power of Cato SSE 360 services, including CASB, DLP, and ATP, ensuring full security coverage for encrypted data flows. 

2. Operational Efficiency: By automating inspection configurations through a simple wizard, it eliminates manual maintenance of bypass lists, allowing IT teams to focus on strategic priorities. 

3. Seamless User Experience: Cato bypasses inspection for domains that either don’t support TLS inspection or don’t require scrutiny, maintaining application performance. 

4. Enhanced Threat Detection: It eliminates blind spots in encrypted traffic, identifying hidden threats like ransomware. 

5. Improved Compliance: Sensitive domains and applications like Healthcare, Finance and Government are bypassed automatically, ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements. 

Cato’s Unique Advantage 

The power behind Safe TLS Inspection is the Cato SASE Cloud Platform, which processes trillions of flows daily across its global backbone of 85+ Points of Presence (PoPs). Leveraging this vast dataset, Cato dynamically updates TLS inspection policies, ensuring precision and eliminating the need for manual configurations. Unlike fragmented solutions, Cato converges all security and networking functions into Cato’s Single Pass Cloud Engine (SPACE), enabling high-throughput decryption and inspection with near-zero latency. By leveraging this unified software stack, SPACE provides contextual insights that only a fully converged solution can achieve, delivering the precision and efficiency that other solutions built on integrated products cannot match.   

Cato Safe TLS Inspection Unlocks a More Secure, Efficient Future 

As digital transformation accelerates, Cato Networks remains committed to helping organizations of all sizes secure their networks with fewer resources and greater efficiency. Safe TLS Inspection marks another milestone in Cato’s commitment to achieve “More with Less,” delivering robust security without compromising on performance or adding complexity. With Safe TLS Inspection, organizations can confidently enforce strong security policies, gain clear visibility into encrypted traffic, and reduce their attack surface—all within the simplicity of Cato’s streamlined, cloud-native platform. 

Are you interested in seeing Cato Safe TLS Inspection in action? Watch our demo to explore how this groundbreaking solution can elevate your network security and visibility without compromising performance.