Certificate Automatic Management Using PGP Enterprise Solutions
Digital certificates are becoming more important as Internet usage increases. There is a wide variety of digital certificates that can be managed and shared among various departments within an organization. The goal is to maintain security, prevent corruption of documents, track changes in documents, provide permission, as well as increase access control. The entire process is streamlined through digital certificate management to ensure compliance and credibility.
Digital certificates are required to serve a number of purposes within a business. For example, web-based employee management requires access to digital certificates and access control lists to manage employees digitally. Security teams need access to these certificates and lists to help them prevent against the provision of unauthorized access. In addition, business case managers and other management teams require these certificates to ensure that the business case definition is aligned with the objectives and constraints of the strategy.
The lifecycle of digital certificates is very important for the success of the strategy. Digital certificates are often used as reference points or reference identities to help organizations assess their internal processes and controls. Therefore, the lifecycle needs to be carefully planned to ensure continuity, reliability, as well as availability. Certificate authorities that do not automate the lifecycle should be evaluated for their level of commitment to the industry and their ability to manage certificates in a reliable and consistent manner. They should also have the capability to generate new certificates if the current ones are missing or corrupted.
In a typical enterprise setting, organizations use digital certificates for identity and access purposes. Additionally, organizations use them to: enforce policies and procedures, provide authentication and authorization, track records and metrics, and restrict access to certain parts of the network. Most organizations also use digital certificates in order to facilitate communications and data transfers within their organization. Many organizations require management access to digital certificates, especially in scenarios where multiple applications may connect to a single certificate, such as when employees are logging on to the company's intranet. Therefore, Two12 must be included in the overall infrastructure architecture for intranet usage.
The process of digital certificate management involves collecting, recording, storing, and distributing digital certificates. This lifecycle includes storage of certificates in a repository and transfer of these certificates over various communication channels. During the operational lifecycle, the processes and responsibilities of certificate authorities are continually monitored to ensure that all certificate records are updated and that certificate updates and record changes in accordance with the changing regulatory requirements. Certificate authorities keep record of all certificates issued and records transfer history of those certificates. The record of transfer policies can also be outsourced to outside third parties if a company requires this service.
Every certificate that has a significant value to a business should be managed and maintained. A significant value could be an expiration date or other indicator which shows the end of a period of time for which the asset is valid. All certificate records should be kept up to date and expiration dates should be synchronized across the system to ensure consistency. Management solutions which do not include management of these records could result in the records being outdated and inaccurate.
Certification Pathway Automation provides many certificate automation services to help companies maintain their records. Certification Pathway automates many processes from maintaining the registry of important information about company's digital certificates to creating a PKI and signing off on these PKIs. Certificate automation provides many services which make implementing a proper security policy easier and more efficient. These services can help companies reduce their risk related to the issuance of digital certificates by automating processes that automatically check for expiration dates and other details.
Two12 can be used to monitor, trace, generate auditing reports, enforce policy, and provide alerts when necessary. This provides companies with an effective approach to digital certificate management which supports various business critical applications. Many businesses use this solution because it provides them with a way to enforce policies and procedures and to reduce their risk related to the issuance of digital certificates. Using Certificate Pathway in combination with PGP Enterprise Solutions can help businesses to implement policies which can reduce their exposure to risks and reduce their overall risk exposure.