White Paper Examines Certificate Management Challenges and Entrust
With the constant evolution of security threats, forward-thinking companies must closely scrutinize their security framework. Key components in an organization's security infrastructure are digital certificates, which not only provide identification assurances, but also support secure data transfer. The IT departments of organizations may be tasked with managing, discovering and monitoring hundreds or even thousands of certificates, a massive duty in the grand scheme of protecting business critical information.
Frost & Sullivan's white paper, "Easing the Pains of Certificate Management: An Overview of Entrust, the No. 2 Provider of SSL Certificates in the Market," examines the need for digital certificates, as well as the responsibilities and challenges related to digital certificate management. The white paper pays particular attention to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, which are cryptographic protocols providing security and identification support, among the many types of digital certificates present at an organization.
Maintaining trust between an organization providing content and the end-user relies, in part, on the proper management of digital certificates. Certificate management can be challenging due to the quantity of certificates in use, as well as the need to constantly control encryption levels on the certificates, ensure there are no rogue or expired certificates, and replace non-compliant certificates to conform to security policies or regulations within a security framework.
Additionally, there must be a high level of trust in the verification process by the Certification Authority (CA). In 2011 alone, there were several breaches of two CAs. This factor, along with the growing complexities of dangers organizations face on a daily basis, has pushed the industry to re-evaluate defense strategies.
"The need for proper and reliable IT security is of paramount importance to any enterprise involved in data transfer," said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Richard Martinez, Jr. "If implemented and maintained in a consistent and efficient manner, organizations can avoid the headache of an outage due to an expired certificate. An outage can result in the loss of traffic, costing an organization hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars."
To keep on top of this critical part of IT infrastructure, organizations need a certificate provider with a reputable brand, reliable track record and high-assurance certificates. Frost & Sullivan has identified Entrust, an internationally-trusted digital certificate provider, as a leader in customer service and comprehensive management and discovery platforms that oversee a wide range of certificates. This white paper evaluates Entrust security solutions, as well as the general landscape of the digital certificate environment.
"Entrust brings together value and trust, both of which are of the utmost importance to consumers leery of Web-based dangers," said Martinez. "With the second highest market share in the total CA and high-assurance certificate markets, Entrust provides all-inclusive solutions to streamline the challenges of digital certificate management."