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Tick-Tock TLS: The Push Towards 90-Day Certificates
The web security landscape is significantly changing as the industry moves towards 90-day TLS certificates. This shift, driven by major browsers like Google Chrome, aims to enhance security by reducing the risk of compromised certificates. However, it also brings substantial challenges for web users, developers, and publishers. With current certificate validation periods at 398 days or about 13 months, the move to a 90-day validity period represents a radical transformation that requires a new approach to certificate management.
Our Take:
The transition to 90-day certificates will alter how organizations fundamentally handle certificate management. While shorter lifespans can enhance security by reducing the window for potential attacks, they also significantly increase the operational burden of frequent renewals. This heightened renewal frequency makes manual management impractical and raises the risk of outages due to missed renewals. It's clear that automation becomes essential to maintaining security and compliance without disrupting operations, and understanding this is crucial for a successful transition.
At Merlin Cyber, we understand the complexities and challenges this transition entails. We also understand that automation is crucial to overcoming these challenges. Organizations can ensure that renewals are handled efficiently and without error by implementing automated certificate lifecycle management. Venafi’s 90-Day TLS Readiness Solution provides a comprehensive framework to facilitate this transition, including continuous discovery and inventory of TLS certificates, ensuring complete visibility and control. Automated renewal processes eliminate the risk of human error, keeping certificates up to date.
Centralized policy and workflow management streamline the administration of certificates, making it easier to comply with new, shorter lifespans. Integration with existing DevOps tools allows for the automated provisioning of certificates, ensuring that deployment environments remain secure and compliant. Continuous monitoring and real-time reporting help detect anomalies, ensuring all certificates stay compliant and secure. The move towards 90-day certificates represents a significant shift in web security.
However, organizations can navigate this change smoothly with the right tools and strategies. By embracing automation and leveraging comprehensive solutions like Venafi’s 90-Day TLS Readiness Solution, organizations can enhance their security posture, maintain operational continuity, and ensure compliance with new standards. At Merlin Cyber, we are not just a provider of solutions, but a committed partner in helping organizations adapt to these changes and secure their digital environments effectively. ?– Daniel McGregor
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NEW SERIES
Mastering Privileged Access Management(PAM): Merlin Cyber's Guide to CyberArk PAM
What is Privileged Access Management(PAM), and how can CyberArk help?
Welcome to our new series on PAM where we cover everything from best practices to the common challenges government end-users face. And, of course, we'll help you troubleshoot those pesky misconceptions with PAM. Plus, we're breaking it down into bite-sized chunks to make it manageable. So, let’s jump right in!?
Today, we're discussing something crucial in cybersecurity: Privileged Access Management, or PAM. Now, PAM is an absolute must, especially in the federal government’s cyber landscape, where threats are getting more sophisticated and persistent. While Identity and Access Management (IAM) ensures everyone has the proper access across federal agencies, PAM is all about those super-user accounts with elevated privileges. Whether managing a massive federal network or a specialized government agency, PAM is your best ally in fighting cyber threats.?
What is PAM??
In a nutshell, PAM is a cybersecurity strategy focused on managing and securing accounts with elevated permissions within an organization. These privileged accounts, usually held by IT admins, are the master keys to your most critical systems and sensitive data. If these keys fall into the wrong hands, the consequences can be catastrophic—data breaches, system outages, and other severe security incidents that federal agencies can’t afford.?
And that’s where PAM comes to the rescue, especially with CyberArk’s solutions. CyberArk’s Identity Security Platform sets up strict access controls, keeps a constant eye on things, and follows the principle of least privilege—giving users only the access they need to do their jobs and nothing more. Their Just-in-Time (JIT) access with Zero Standing Privileges seriously cuts down the risk of credential theft and attackers moving around in your network. This approach doesn't just protect federal systems from external threats but reduces the risk of insider threats, where employees might misuse their access.?
So stick around because, in the following publication, we’ll discuss PAM best practices and how CyberArk fits into the picture. Trust me, you won’t want to miss it!?- Christopher Rainey
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