Understanding the 5 pillars of Certificate Lifecycle Management

Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) refers to the complex and often time-consuming processes of discovering, issuing, renewing, and revoking digital certificates. These certificates authenticate websites and identities and play a critical role in any enterprise organization’s cybersecurity setup. This means proper management of digital certificates, both public and private, is key.

Underscoring the concept of modern certificate lifecycle management: five pillars that promote maximum oversight, security, and compliance. These pillars describe the full certificate lifecycle, along with key priorities that must be addressed in every stage. They include:

• Discover

• Deploy

• Revoke and Replace

• Renew

• Integration

Agile at each pillar: Stay ready for anything

All pillars promote certificate agility, which is the ability to quickly and accurately manage certificates—revoking, replacing, or renewing them as needed, no matter the volume. Achieving this agility requires a multi-faceted approach where every aspect of the certificate lifecycle is streamlined and scalable.

Why automation is crucial

With the upcoming change to SSL/TLS certificates only being valid for 90 days, implementing an automated Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) system is more important than ever. CLM solutions help reduce the cost and risks of manually managing digital certificates while optimizing all five pillars. Let's delve into each pillar and see how the right Certificate Lifecycle Management platform can enhance them.

Pillar 1: Discover

Certificate discovery reveals which certificates exist within an environment, where they are stored, and what life cycle stage they are in. You simply can't manage what you don't know you have. If this essential information is not fully understood, outages and security breaches are more likely. Using an automated CLM system helps during this stage because it ensures all certificates will be found, all information will be tracked in a single place, and all non-compliant certificates will be flagged.

The discovery pillar forms the foundation for the other stages of the certificate lifecycle because you can’t manage what you don’t know is there.

Key benefits of the discovery stage

• Outage prevention. During the discovery phase, all certificates, including those near expiration, should be identified. An automated CLM system will make this stage much easier. Automated systems will find certificates that IT teams may not even know about. As awareness of these certificates increases, it becomes more likely that they will be renewed before outages become a problem.

• Renewal planning. Optimized certificate discovery supports systematic renewal processes and the planning that goes into developing these solutions.

• Optimized spending. Poor certificate discovery can lead to a variety of costly problems, including service outages or security breaches. When organizations use an automated system for discovery, it could reduce IT costs by boosting efficiency and thereby reducing the high expenditures associated with the time staff spends on manual processes.

• Governance. Driving stronger compliance monitoring, risk management, and policy enforcement, the discovery pillar can help governance teams gain critical insights into certificate usage.

Pillar 2: Deploy

Before digital certificates can be deployed and serve their central functions of encryption and authentication, they must be ordered and issued from trusted Certificate Authorities (CAs). Expedited issuance is important but so is accurate installation. This pillar plays into some of the most important certificate processes, ensuring that digital certificates achieve their core goal of establishing trust and boosting cybersecurity.

Installation methods

There are many ways to install digital certificates and this part of the process requires highly technical knowledge. Most situations call for one of these top strategies:

• Agent-based. Offering a flexible approach to deployment, agent-based solutions can involve local or remote servers. Handled by individuals or organizations, this approach tends to be tedious and can be prone to errors.

• Network agents. Highly customizable and deployed within critical network environments, network agents offer a tailored approach to certificate deployment. This grants organizations maximum control over the process but may call for expertise and a greater time commitment.

• ACME. Meant to optimize critical certificate processes, an Automated Certificate Management Environment (ACME) can expedite essential certificate processes by automating interactions with CAs. This helps keep certificates up to date while reducing administrative burden.

Key benefits of proper deployment

• Accuracy of installation. Digital certificates are ineffective unless they are installed correctly. With accurate installation comes enhanced trust among clients and users.

• Improved efficiency and security. If digital certificates are not configured as needed, security breaches become more likely. Automated deployment processes using a CLM solution can streamline installation and drive seamless communication.

• Automatic inclusion. When this pillar is optimized, deployed certificates can be seamlessly integrated into other automated activities. As such, effective deployment can enhance other pillars and other areas of the certificate lifecycle.

Pillar 3: Renew

Certificate expiration is an important, albeit often dreaded part of the certificate lifecycle. Expiration should not be viewed as an obstacle to overcome but rather as a valuable source of protection: when certificates have a limited lifespan, there is a smaller window of time in which threat actors can find and exploit vulnerabilities.

What's more, expiration encourages renewal — and with renewal comes the chance to implement newer, stronger certificates. This pillar is likely to see significant change in the near future, as 90-day validity periods are on the horizon. With shorter SSL certificate lifespans will come the need to renew certificates more frequently, but this can be a net positive: those regularly updated certificates will stand the best chance of preventing breaches.

The problem lies not in short validity periods but rather in the failure to implement a streamlined solution for handling renewals. The goal: to ensure that all certificates are renewed in a timely manner to avoid outages. This means that certificates should be highlighted as they approach expiration, with new digital certificates promptly obtained and installed. Automated CLM solutions will become necessary with the upcoming change in validity periods, especially for enterprises with hundreds or even thousands of certificates in use.

Key benefits of certificate renewal

• Preventing outages or security breaches. Above all else, optimized renewal is important because it limits the potential for outages. These can be devastating from a security standpoint, and the risk of a breach simply is not worth taking given the sophistication of today's threat actors.

• Automated renewal processes save employees time. Overburdened IT departments can only dedicate so much time to certificate renewal. Automated systems free busy tech professionals from time-consuming certificate processes and instead encourage them to focus on other important matters.

• Renewals keep organizations compliant. Strategic renewal processes are essential from a compliance standpoint. Many regulatory frameworks call for prompt certificate renewals to ensure that data is encrypted in transit.

Pillar 4: Revoke and replace

While the renewal strategies highlighted above can reduce the likelihood of compromised certificates, this still remains a possibility. In the worst-case scenario, proactive strategies must be developed to deal with compromised certificates individually or en masse. If there is not a strong revocation process in place, there will always be a risk of compromised certificates and associated cybersecurity threats.

The secret to making this pillar more effective? Implementing automated solutions so that certificates can be revoked in bulk. This can save considerable time, especially as compared to individually handling certificates. Quick replacement after revocation also matters, and with automated, proactive measures in place, outages become less of a risk.

Key benefits of automatic revocation and replacement

• Fewer human errors. Individually revoked and manually replaced certificates open the door to human errors. With automatic CLM systems, you can feel confident that misconfigurations will be a thing of the past. This can be a powerful defense against both breaches and compliance issues.

• Efficiency. As with the renewal processes highlighted above, manual revocation and replacement can occupy a lot of time that tech professionals would be better off dedicating to other concerns.

Pillar 5: Integration and workflows

Automated processes enhance discovery, issuance, and renewal, but many other elements play into the concept of the 'ideal' CLM solution. Also essential? Seamless integration into the tech stack. The goal: a centralized, single pane of glass approach that facilitates seamless communication between multiple IT systems. In addition to simplifying and streamlining certificate management, this can enhance an organization's overall security posture.

It’s important to confirm that the preferred automated CLM solution works with your current tech stack and with relevant systems. Be especially mindful of IT Service Management (ITSM) and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), which can support real-time monitoring and improve compliance management.

Key benefits of effective integration and workflow

• Increased control over the tech stack. Enhanced control is essential for aligning tech systems with organizational objectives. The right integrations can make it easier to tailor IT solutions according to specific missions or workflows.

• Enhanced automation and efficiency. With proper integration, consolidated systems can streamline a variety of workflows. Under this approach, platforms such as Ansible can integrate with CLMs to help drive efficiency in certificate discovery, renewal, and more.

• Remaining in preferred environments. Employees should not be forced to use different consoles or logins. When a CLM solution offers optimized integrations, teams no longer need to face disjointed processes as they navigate the tech stack.

Visibility

While visibility does not technically qualify as one of the pillars of CLM, it is a critical competency of certificate lifecycle management that supports all of the pillars. Simply put, it is impossible to effectively manage certificates, workflows, or integrations that are not properly seen or understood. Visibility goes beyond just discovery and speaks to the visibility needed throughout the entire lifecycle of each certificate. This includes a thorough understanding of certificate status, health, usage, and compliance.

Trust Sectigo with all 5 pillars of certificate lifecycle management

It is impossible to overstate the importance of the 5 pillars of certificate lifecycle management (along with visibility) for boosting cybersecurity, compliance, and efficiency.

Sectigo offers a comprehensive, automated certificate lifecycle management solution that handles each of these pillars while enhancing deployment flexibility and driving crypto agility. Look to Sectigo Certificate Manager (SCM) for seamless and reliable management.

Want to learn more? Get in touch to book a demo of Sectigo Certificate Manager!

Related posts:

The evolving SSL/TLS certificate lifecycle & how to manage the changes

What is a certificate management system & when is an automated system needed?

The role of certificate lifecycle automation in enterprise environments