What is Certificate Management?

AND HOW IMPORTANT IS IT?

Certificate Management: The Basics

Digital Certificates are a cornerstone of modern cyber security, serving as a crucial mechanism for maintaining secure, encrypted communications between an end user and a web server. Certificates play a multifaceted role in the digital landscape, but what specific attributes do they offer?

Managing Your Certificates

The management of your certificates is far from straightforward. Each certificate comes with its own set of characteristics and potential challenges:


Certificate Management: Certificate Types

The complexity of certificate management is further compounded by the sheer volume of certificates that organisations must oversee. Even relatively small teams can find themselves responsible for thousands of certificates, scattered across various systems and applications.

Legacy Certificates

Older certificates that may use outdated encryption standards or have been forgotten in obsolete systems.

Wildcard Certificates

These secure multiple subdomains under a single domain, offering convenience but potentially increasing risk if compromised.

Internal Certificates

Used for intranets or internal systems, these are often overlooked in management processes.

Why Certificate Management Matters

Effective certificate management is not merely a bureaucratic, menial exercise; it is a critical component of cyber security strategy and operational continuity.

Preventing Outages

Expired certificates can cause unexpected system outages, leading to service disruptions that can have far-reaching consequences. These outages can:

Mitigating Security Risks

Proper certificate management is crucial for maintaining a robust security posture.

Enhancing Visibility and Control

Comprehensive certificate management provides you with:

Wildcard Certificates

Wildcard Certificates allows a single certificate to secure multiple subdomains of a domain.

These certificates have a range of pros and cons that you have to take into consideration.