February 15th to 16th, 2021. That’s the period when Google Voice, Google’s telephone service, experienced a worldwide outage that prevented its users from making and receiving Voice over Internet (VoIP) calls for over four hours. Upon scrutiny and follow-up, the cause of the outage was found to be none other than an expired certificate. A Transport Layer Security (TLS), to be specific.

Sadly, this is the reality of thousands of businesses. If they’re not falling prey to the hazards of expired certificates, they’re most definitely getting trapped by another related pitfall. Why? Because these companies are not navigating the certificate lifecycle management process as they should. One word: mayhem.

In this post, we’ll examine the top pitfalls and challenges you’re likely to encounter in your certificate lifecycle management journey and possible solutions.

Potential Pitfalls in the Certificate Lifecycle Management Process

Unsurprisingly, the challenges listed below emanate from managing certificates manually. The result is often an arduous process that creates many painful areas.

Other than unexpected outages, here are more pitfalls:

1. Lack of Visibility

With manual certificate management, visibility becomes a real issue. You end up with limited insight into your trust structures. This makes it incredibly challenging to find certificates before they expire, leading to potential outages that could have been easily prevented.

2. Wasted Time

Tracking and managing certificates using spreadsheets can be a real-time sink. Just imagine scrolling through thousands of rows, searching for that one certificate you need. It can eat up many staff hours that could be better spent elsewhere.

3. Error-Prone Processes

Sorting through a massive number of certificates is no easy task. It would be best if you prioritized them based on their applicability, validity, and importance. Plus, you need to set up alerts for expiring certificates or those that need revocation. Doing all of this manually is a recipe for human error. Mistakes are bound to happen.

4. Security Risks

When there isn’t clear visibility into the ownership of certificates, it’s highly likely that private keys might end up stored in unsecured locations. This can lead to compromised keys and certificates, which, if you aren’t careful, will leave your organization staring down the barrel of data breaches. 

Automated Certificate Lifecycle Management: The Solution to Your Woes

The writing is on the wall: until and unless you move away from manual processes, it’ll be impossible to shake off the challenges above. 

The promise of automation is undeniable.

When you deploy a certificate lifecycle management system worth its salt, you will:

  • Gain unobstructed visibility and lifecycle control over all private and public certificates and keys. This means everyone on your team will know what certificates are being used, when they need renewal, and who’s responsible for them. 
  • Steer clear of sudden certificate-related outages once and for all. End-to-end certificate lifecycle management actions like provisioning, issuing, and renewal must be automated to avoid misconfigurations or impromptu certificate-related issues. 
  • Enjoy increased efficiency and reduced time and overhead costs. With little training, anyone can convert their business use cases into easy-to-use automation workflows for orchestrating the whole certificate lifecycle management process.

Automated Certificate Lifecycle Management is Here; Embrace It

As you embark toward total digital transformation, pick a robust and efficient certificate management system to mitigate security risks, save time and resources, and stay ahead of the game. For more insights on how automation can optimize your certificate lifecycle management process, check out Sectigo’s Certificate Manager.