Sectigo Blog

Last week, members of the Sectigo leadership team sat down to talk about the future of web security in 2019. Their discussion touched upon the evolution of the digital certificate field, new developments in email security standards, and the ways in which the threat landscape is expected to evolve. But in the fast-paced world of cybersecurity, there is always more to discuss. Today, a group of Sectigo leaders gathered to talk about what might be in store for the Internet of Things (IoT) in the coming year.

Congress’s recent report on the 2017 Equifax data breach reveals that an expired certificate disabled a monitoring system, allowing the attack to harvest data unchecked for more than two months.

Cybersecurity is an industry uniquely driven by innovation, as both cybercriminals and enterprise cybersecurity experts strive to create or identify the next major development that will give them a leg up over the other. In that way, predicting what comes next within the cybersecurity field provides an interesting lens on today’s threat landscape, even as it gives us a glimpse of the future. This week, a group of Sectigo leaders sat down to discuss the future of the industry and Sectigo’s place within it.

Yesterday, the world experienced major outages in its mobile networks, including loss of service for 32 million Britons on O2 and other carriers, as well as millions more in Japan and other parts of the globe. The rumor is that many private IoT networks were affected by this same outage, most of which we’ll probably never hear about.

Recent research from PhishLabs shows that more than 50% of phishing sites now use SSL certificates. This fact isn’t really surprising considering that phishing sites depend fundamentally on being confused for the genuine sites they mimic. The closer the phishing site is to the actual site, the more effective it is in its mission. Adding an SSL certificate puts a lock icon and https to the web address; which in their absence, are important tip-offs that the site isn’t on the up and up.

The term IoT means a lot of things to a lot of people. To consumers, it may be about smart refrigerators, and to heating and cooling installers, IoT may mean connected thermostats.

The term has been around a long time, as evidenced by industrial controllers that have been remotely managed for decades. The commonalities are network connectivity and some level of constraint – such as a lack of direct human interaction – which differentiate IoT devices from smartphones and PCs.

I am pleased to announce that Comodo CA has officially changed its name to Sectigo. This name change communicates that Sectigo is a separate operating entity, and since its separation from its predecessor Comodo Group in 2017, will be an essential element of ensuring that both companies can continue to conduct business without market confusion.