WATERLOO, ON – Led by Netflix’s recent decision to encrypt their traffic, more than two-thirds of North American Internet traffic is expected to be encrypted in 2016, according to new data from Sandvine.
In a paper entitled Global Internet Phenomena Spotlight, Sandvine used data collected for a live, representative network in North America to explain the current state of traffic encryption, where it is going, as well as provide a high level overview of the technical terms and technology associated with encrypted Internet traffic.
Some highlights from the research include:
– YouTube is the largest source of encrypted traffic in North America, and still a significant contributor of unencrypted traffic;
– Google Play traffic is encrypted, preventing the ability for third-parties to identify the apps, movies, and music being consumed by subscribers. Apple's iTunes traffic remains unencrypted; and
– The simplicity of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Let's Encrypt" program, due to launch in mid-2015, will help drive encryption adoption among smaller sites.
"The decision by leading applications to encrypt their traffic is great for subscribers because it ensures the content of their Internet traffic remains private," said Sandvine CTO Don Bowman, in the paper’s news release. "The policy solutions that Sandvine focuses on have never required identification of content, just applications or application categories. Even with the majority of Internet traffic becoming encrypted, Sandvine will still be able to provide highly accurate identification of encrypted applications so that operators can continue to offer innovative application service plans to their subscribers."
