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Certificate-Related Outages Impact Most Businesses

Pete Goldin
Editor and Publisher
APMdigest

Certificate-related outages negatively impact the reliability and availability of vital systems and services, according to a new study by Venafi.

“Certificates and keys are identity and access management for machines, just like user names and passwords are for humans,” said Kevin Bocek, VP of Security Strategy and Threat Intelligence at Venafi. “Certificates allow machines to communicate securely and that makes them an essential, but underappreciated, part of every organization’s digital ecosystem and our global digital economy. When certificates expire unexpectedly, critical services can be impacted. Unfortunately, most businesses do not have the visibility or tools necessary to manage this fundamental element of cyber security and operational availability effectively.”

The primary study findings include:

■ The majority (79 percent) of respondents suffered at least one certificate-related outage in 2016.

■ Over a third (38 percent) suffered more than six certificate-related outages in 2016.

■ Almost one in twenty (4 percent) suffered 100 or more certificate-related outages in 2016.

■ Almost two-thirds (64 percent) said their organizations could not respond to a certificate-related security event in six hours or less.

As the use of encryption explodes, the challenges connected with effective key and certificate management have proliferated. Recent research showed dramatic growth in the use of keys and certificates, especially among large organizations.

One of the primary drivers behind the surge in certificate usage is the explosion in the number of IP-enabled devices on business networks. Another challenge organizations face is the adoption of DevOps and Fast IT development processes that dramatically increase the number of certificates needed. This increase in certificates and their corresponding keys compounds the serious security vulnerabilities associated with cryptographic key and digital certificate mismanagement.

Many businesses are still unaware of the scale of this problem. Venafi customer data shows that the average organization found over 16,500 unknown keys and certificates of which they were not previously aware. Also, the new study shows that most companies do not have control over their key and certificate inventory, do not have an automated process for renewals and have no central record of when certificates are due to expire:

■ Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of organizations do not manage all their keys and certificates centrally.

■ Of those that do manage certificates centrally, 65 percent rely on security controls from their Certificate Authorities (CAs), which limit their visibility to certificates provided by the issuing CA.

“The good news is that certificate-related outages are completely preventable, but you need to understand the scale and the scope of the problem,” continued Bocek. “As we use more cloud services, IoT devices and DevOps automation, certificate usage is skyrocketing. To keep up with this expanding problem, organizations must automate the discovery, issuance, lifecycle, and remediation of all keys and certificates from the data center to the cloud to the IoT edge of their networks. Failure to do so puts the reliability and availability of critical services at risk and dramatically increases cyber security risks.”

Pete Goldin is Editor and Publisher of APMdigest

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Certificate-Related Outages Impact Most Businesses

Pete Goldin
Editor and Publisher
APMdigest

Certificate-related outages negatively impact the reliability and availability of vital systems and services, according to a new study by Venafi.

“Certificates and keys are identity and access management for machines, just like user names and passwords are for humans,” said Kevin Bocek, VP of Security Strategy and Threat Intelligence at Venafi. “Certificates allow machines to communicate securely and that makes them an essential, but underappreciated, part of every organization’s digital ecosystem and our global digital economy. When certificates expire unexpectedly, critical services can be impacted. Unfortunately, most businesses do not have the visibility or tools necessary to manage this fundamental element of cyber security and operational availability effectively.”

The primary study findings include:

■ The majority (79 percent) of respondents suffered at least one certificate-related outage in 2016.

■ Over a third (38 percent) suffered more than six certificate-related outages in 2016.

■ Almost one in twenty (4 percent) suffered 100 or more certificate-related outages in 2016.

■ Almost two-thirds (64 percent) said their organizations could not respond to a certificate-related security event in six hours or less.

As the use of encryption explodes, the challenges connected with effective key and certificate management have proliferated. Recent research showed dramatic growth in the use of keys and certificates, especially among large organizations.

One of the primary drivers behind the surge in certificate usage is the explosion in the number of IP-enabled devices on business networks. Another challenge organizations face is the adoption of DevOps and Fast IT development processes that dramatically increase the number of certificates needed. This increase in certificates and their corresponding keys compounds the serious security vulnerabilities associated with cryptographic key and digital certificate mismanagement.

Many businesses are still unaware of the scale of this problem. Venafi customer data shows that the average organization found over 16,500 unknown keys and certificates of which they were not previously aware. Also, the new study shows that most companies do not have control over their key and certificate inventory, do not have an automated process for renewals and have no central record of when certificates are due to expire:

■ Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of organizations do not manage all their keys and certificates centrally.

■ Of those that do manage certificates centrally, 65 percent rely on security controls from their Certificate Authorities (CAs), which limit their visibility to certificates provided by the issuing CA.

“The good news is that certificate-related outages are completely preventable, but you need to understand the scale and the scope of the problem,” continued Bocek. “As we use more cloud services, IoT devices and DevOps automation, certificate usage is skyrocketing. To keep up with this expanding problem, organizations must automate the discovery, issuance, lifecycle, and remediation of all keys and certificates from the data center to the cloud to the IoT edge of their networks. Failure to do so puts the reliability and availability of critical services at risk and dramatically increases cyber security risks.”

Pete Goldin is Editor and Publisher of APMdigest

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According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

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In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

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