What is certificate management?

Also known as X.509 certificates, digital certificates have all of the information that is necessary to authenticate the identity of individuals, websites, organisations and more. Digital certificates use a unique private/public key pair which verifies information as it moves across a network, and are crucial in identifying and validating digital communications and communicators.

Although digital certification may seem overly complex, employing a digital certificate is actually a very simple process.

• The certificate is purchased from the Certification Authority (CA), who provides a digital signature.
• The certificate is installed on the endpoint, like a device, server or website.
• The certificate functions until it expires.
• The admin either revokes the certificate and purchases a new one, or has the certificate renewed.

Enterprise processes need to leverage digital systems to operate, especially as more and more devices are becoming connected—and, every connected system needs a certificate to operate security. Administrators have to be able to ensure that there are no unwanted certificates, and handling the processes manually often is not feasible. Specialised management systems help track certificates, notify when certificates are expired/close to expiry, identify unknown certificates and promote better, more secure communication across an organisation’s networks.

Additionally, some of the most damaging security breaches in history were either the result of expired certificates, or were further exacerbated by expired certificates. For example, a 2017 breach of Equifax credit reporting agency went undiscovered for nearly three months, because an expired certificate was preventing proper inspection of network traffic. This compromised the personal information of 147 million people. And Equifax isn’t alone; LinkedIn, Microsoft, Ericsson, and most recently, Google Voice have all suffered by failing to update certificates.

Expired certificates have the potential to either cause unplanned system outages, or to open holes in your digital security through which threat actors can gain access to your network. This can easily lead to disrupted service, reputational damage, exposure of sensitive organisational and customer data, and steep fines and penalties for those businesses who allow their certificates to lapse.

Renewing certificates before they expire is absolutely essential. But with potentially thousands of certificates in play, businesses face the almost insurmountable task of upgrading and renewing certificates with multiple CAs while adhering to pre-planned maintenance windows to prevent interrupting vital services. Perhaps even more problematic is that the certificates themselves lack vital context to help organisations prioritise critical certificates, identify service owners or even determine which certificates are in need of renewal.

To ensure on time certificate renewal, organisations need a single, centralised, easy-to-use inventory of certificates. ServiceNow makes this a reality; leveraging existing ServiceNow configuration and visibility mechanisms to identify certificates, businesses can keep a clear record of all their certificates, with little effort on their part.

Then, incorporating advanced automation in the form optimised workflows, organisations can optimise the renewal process, automatically getting in touch for approvals, signing tasks and effectively addressing any expired certificates. And through it all, the ServiceNow Certificate Management dashboard provides a complete, at-a-glance summary of the complete certificate picture.

With ServiceNow, you can give your essential certificates the attention they deserve, and avoid the danger, reputational damage and penalties that come with allowing those certificates to expire.