To ensure compliance with SSL/TLS certifications and avoid accidental certificate loss, an automated certificate watchdog approach is needed. Such a system takes advantage of the massive amounts of data that automation collects and synthesizes to identify outlier trends. It is imperative that certificate management processes are monitored for errors and alerts sent out 30 to 60 days before a certificate’s expiration date. The automated renewal notifications should include sufficient time to renew the certificate. A central compliance team should receive alerts as well.
To improve the security grade of your SSL certificates, you should look for trusted certificate authorities. Trusted certificate authorities go through rigorous third-party audits and maintain their positions in major browser and operating system root certificate programs. Another important criterion for SSL certificates is the level of authentication. For example, if your website is static, domain validation may be sufficient. However, if you are running a blog, Organization Validation should be used. Extended Validation is the highest level of authentication and has visible security signs.
Certificates come with various extensions. For example, the default RSA key length is 2048 bits. But if you use a certificate with an ECC key, it should be 4096 bits. This is a much stronger option. In addition, the PKIX working group recommends specific certificate types. For more information, you can visit the Internet X.509 version 3 standard, also known as the Public Key Infrastructure – Certificate and CRL Profile. The RFC or section number containing the definition of an extension will be referenced. An object identifier (OID) is provided for each extension.
To ensure proper certificate management, you should have a comprehensive inventory of all your certificate types. For example, an organization should have one central location for TLS server certificates and should sync the solution with internal CAs. Another important consideration is the length of the validity period of the certificate. Ideally, the certificate should be renewed at least once every three years. In addition, you should also check CT logs and DNs before sending them to the CA.
There are many different types of SSL certificates. Choosing the right one for your business depends on your needs and requirements. Some organizations prefer OV, EV, and TLS certificates, but others opt for the more expensive OV or EV level. SSL-enabled websites should display a trust site seal. You can also consult with your IT department to determine which certificate to use. A good certificate management solution will help you reduce security risk and ensure that services continue to function as before.
The default certificate profile consists of a default content and a set of constraints. The default validity period is two years. Multiple policy sets may be attached to the same certificate profile, but their IDs are unique. Different policy sets are useful when using multiple certificates and dual keys. The default policy set for a certificate will determine the validity period of the certificate and which policy set is applied to the certificate. The server will then evaluate each policy set for each request.