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28 February 2018 marked the last day that organizations could purchase certificates with a three-year validity period. All SSL/TLS certificates issued on or after 1 March will have a maximum lifespan of approximately two years (825 days) only. This change, which reflects the Certificate Authority/Browser (CAB) Forum's adoption of Ballot 193 in February 2017, is significant in that organizations will now need to renew their certificates more often. Hashed Out Editor-in-Chief Patrick Nohe thinks all this greater frequency re-validation by CAs will increase the time involved in the re-issuing process. If that's true, organizations will need to plan ahead to make sure their protected websites don't suffer any certificate outages
At face value, shorter certificate validity periods seem like a pain. But there is a draw to renewing certificates more frequently. Security consultant Scott Helme says there are several security benefits associated with implementing shorter maximum certificate lifetimes. Here are four identified by Helme.
What Can Organizations Do in the Meantime
Helme is optimistic that the CAB won't stop at Ballot 193 and will introduce new proposals that make certificate validity periods even shorter than 825 days. His hopes aren't unfounded. The CAB voted on and passed Ballot 193 only after Google introduced its own ballot that would have reduced certificates' lifetimes to just 13 months. CAs and other browsers largely opposed the ballot and caused it to fail. When they did, Google’s representative Ryan Sleevi suggested that the tech giant may pursue other means to get its way. Google could, for instance, set certificate trust requirements in Chrome to just 13 months.
If Google's determination is any indication, certificate lifetimes will likely continue to shrink. This frequency of renewal will place increasing strain on organizations that manually monitor their certificates until it becomes impossible. With that said, enterprises should get ahead of the curve by automating their certificate management process.
Optimize your continuous key and certificate monitoring procedures today.
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