The future of work is constantly evolving. Offices are now less occupied because of remote work. We are working with teams globally, eliminating the need for face-to-face interaction to collaborate. Despite its benefits, this poses a bigger risk of unauthorized access and cyberattacks to businesses.
With cyberattacks also evolving, there is a need for companies to invest in cyberinfrastructure that would protect the organization. Digital certificates are the primary solution in ensuring that only authorized people and machines can access the company’s network. These certificates authenticate the identity of users by binding certificate owners to a unique public/private key-pair that can be used to encrypt and digitally sign information.
What is PKI Management?
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a system of policies, procedures, and technologies required to establish and manage digital certificates and public keys. This encryption framework secures communication between the network and its users, thus protecting the business environment through its three main benefits: authentication, encryption, and data integrity.
With PKI, it is possible to issue digital certificates by assigning identities. These certificates serve as a passport to the network – as they are difficult to spoof, contain details about one’s identity, and can easily be revoked.
Why is Managing PKI Important?
It is critical to manage digital certificates across complex networks to ensure the security of your organization against cyberattacks. PKI management often involves Certificate Authorities (CAs). A CA is a trusted third party that issues certificates and end-user keys, providing trust to the entire PKI framework. Through Certificate Authorities, the identity of the network’s users and computers can be attested. Additionally, CAs also manage the certificates throughout its life cycle, from its creation to its expiry, or revocation.
Challenges
However, challenges exist in managing certificates and PKI, such as:
Outage and Breaches
Tied to certificates are the risks of outage and breaches. Outage occurs when the certificate life cycle is not properly monitored. For instance, human error can possibly occur when tracking certificates is done manually. What makes this more challenging is the high volume of users for companies, as well as the adoption of BYOD in organizations. Breaches, on the other hand, can occur when certificates are not replaced on time. Due to decreased security, the business may then be exposed to hackers.System Errors and Service Terminations
Inefficiencies and inadequacies in PKI management often cause adverse disruptions to the business. Expired X.509 certificates may result in system errors or service terminations, causing distrust or sales losses.Loss of Credibility
With cyberattacks evolving, ineffective cybersecurity measures also make the organization vulnerable to attackers preying for sensitive information. The business may lose its credibility – all because of improper PKI and certificate management.
These challenges raise the need for a more effective PKI and certificate management system. To properly manage certificates, manual control of the certificate life cycle is not ideal. Therefore, Certificate Authorities like GlobalSign have generated solutions that will allow clients to simplify PKI and certificate management.
Solutions to the PKI Challenges
PKI Certificate tracker
Multiple certificates can be difficult to track manually but there are solutions to help companies solve this issue. For example, through a Atlas Discovery, companies can easily manage their SSL certificates so they can be notified when certificates are about to expire and reissue certificates when needed, regardless of the issuing CA.Automating your PKI Certificate management
A scalable PKI Certificate management is what makes security work for companies managing a multitude of digital certificates. For example, adopting a lifecycle management system enables companies to meet compliance requirements. It helps users track and manage their digital certificates to avoid certificate-related issues in the long run. It also reduces the resources, time, and effort needed to manage high-volume certificates.
Simplifying PKI and Certificate Management
Public Key Infrastructure is a powerful cybersecurity solution, but what remains to be a challenge is its implementation and required resources. On top of this is the high volumes of users to manage, thus being susceptible to human error. As such, GlobalSign has engineered Atlas to empower your business’ certificate management.
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Atlas: The Next-generation PKI Management Solution
Atlas is a high-speed cloud certificate management engine that replaces the need for a homegrown private Certificate Authority. Being an automated PKI platform, Atlas allows enterprise IT teams to easily generate, manage and authenticate identities without the need for manual processes such as directories and monitoring. -
Let GlobalSign Help with Our Managed PKI Solutions
GlobalSign’s Managed PKI is specifically engineered for a high-security certificate management: featuring high availability with a centralized account that is within your command; instant issuance of multi-functional digital certificates; APIs and Active Directory (AD) integration; flexible business terms and unlimited issuance licenses; multiple organization profiles that allow massive certificate issuance; and granular user permissions without hidden fees.
Through our Managed PKI, your company can reallocate resources to more productive causes while maintaining its security and integrity. Certificate management can finally be uncomplicated and manageable. Simplify and secure your workflow by connecting with us today.
