The term encryption goes hand in hand with the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for most people. PKI has been there in the market for the last couple of decades. The SSL security that we see today is one of the products of the PKI. PKI helps digital entities with secured communication channels by providing end to end encryption while transferring data.

IT enterprises have typically used the x.509 certificates to secure their information from being misused. However, lately, people have realized that it is high time that the PKI network can not be understated anymore. After all, history has taught us that even if a single certificate goes offline, it can cost a company millions of dollars.

The digital transformation of the world is in full throttle. All the manual processes are being automated across the globe. This means that more and more virtual services are being added to the network. These virtual services are the endpoints in the networks that need to be protected by installing certificates.

However, remember that certificates are not fit and forget solutions. Today, certificates come with an expiration date. Once expired, you need to renew them.

Here are the reasons why businesses should start considering Certificate Lifestyle automation Solution.

Obtain Visibility

The first thing you need to make sure that you have full control over every certificate in your inventory. This involves regularly looking out for the certificates and identifying the certificates that might reach their endpoint. This practice will not only make you efficient with managing certificates but also simplify your future certificate options. This process also helps the administrator to weed out expired and unwanted certificates.

Ideally, a subnet scan should be done to locate the certificates and their hostname. While scanning, care should be taken to batch the certificates and allow them to cool down during successive scans. This can significantly reduce the network load.

Maintain Inventory

Scanning is not the end of the caretaking duties. You need to make sure that all the scanned data are stored and updated in your existing inventory. If you want to simplify the operation further, you can even categorize the certificates. The best way to categorize the certificates is to arrange them on the owner’s hierarchy. This way, you will be able to simplify the tracking and prioritize them accordingly.

Enforce policy

Organizations have their policy that needs to be followed. However, what you need now is a way by which your policy can be enforced automatically. For instance, you may choose a method for the renovation of the certificate when they have passed the 90% of their validity periods. Such rule defining technologies of policy enforcement might help you restrict any possible future disasters.

Protect Private Keys

Regardless of what method you are using to store your private keys, your number one priority needs to be removing the human element from the key management practices. When you remove people from the key management network, you reduce the possibility of your keys being theft. It also shows your potential compromise by tracking down your keys.

With the automated key system’s help, you can remove the human influence in the network, leveraging the automation flow and their keys to network endpoints. That being said, adding extra layers of security will never hurt. You can ask your team to add an extra layer of protection over the keys.

Enable End To End Monitoring

No matter how advanced you get and how fully automated the certificate management process you have, you need to constantly monitor the PKI system to filter out the weak links. You need a perfect mechanism that fits in every aspect of your certificates across several CAs and network automation software. Dashboards come in handy while tracking the expiry date and send a notification to the certificate owners beforehand.

Conclusion

As a security investor that deals with the SSL and TLS certificates, it would be best to make sure that you and your organization follow all these guidelines. However, these certificates are digital but hold real value in the digital platforms. If you need assistance with digital certificates, feel free to reach out to certificate lifestyle automation.

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