TLS/SSL Certificate Lifecycle Management
By automating TLS/SSL Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) with KeyTalk CKMS, you avoid risks related to human management errors and save a lot of time and resources around CLM. Google's firm desire to shorten the lifespan of TLS/SSL certificates to a maximum of 90 days makes CLM automation a no-brainer.
Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) systems, such as KeyTalk CKMS, offer several benefits to organizations in managing TLS/SSL certificates, including:
Improved Security: TLS/SSL certificates are an important part of securing web applications and websites. With CLM, organizations can better manage the lifecycle of certificates and ensure they are up-to-date and do not expire.
Reduced downtime: CLM can help reduce website downtime by ensuring that certificates are renewed in a timely manner and that there are no interruptions in the certificate chain. This is especially important for organizations that rely on e-commerce and other web-based transactions.
Cost Savings: CLM can also be a way to save costs for organizations. By automating certificate management, you can reduce the number of human errors and associated costs. Additionally, organizations can reduce their certificate expenses by using CLM to avoid purchasing unnecessary certificates and improve efficiency in using existing certificates.
Compliance: TLS/SSL certificates are often required to comply with regulations and certifications such as PCI-DSS and ISO 27001. CLM systems assist in certificate management and provide reporting and auditing functionalities. This allows organizations to better meet these requirements.
Reliability: CLM systems can help prevent unexpected server downtime due to expired or invalid certificates. This guarantees greater reliability of the systems and applications that use these certificates.
Secure Email Service (SES)
With Secure Email Service, KeyTalk offers the ideal “first line of defense” and makes the implementation and management of S/MIME certificates extremely simple. Whether for a handful of users or tens of thousands, whether they are internal or external contacts, S/MIME certificates can be easily requested, deployed, installed and configured for use.
It is important to know that:
You can install SES on-premise (at your own premises) or purchase it as a SaaS solution hosted by KeyTalk.
KeyTalk SES is a turnkey product that includes an S/MIME certificate from GlobalSign or DigiCert. If you opt for the hosted version, a Hardware Security Module (HSM) is also included for secure key storage.
Implementation can be done quickly (often within a day) and does not require extensive knowledge or a significant investment of time.
Easy S/MIME Implementation
If you choose the SES hosted service, the implementation is carried out as follows:
An administrator logs into the service and enters the data necessary for the onboarding process. This includes company information, domain names to use, and the number of email addresses to connect to the service.
Based on this data, KeyTalk begins the organization validation process with the CA (Certification Authority) partner GlobalSign or DigiCert. The CA partner verifies the identity of the requesting organization and its ownership of the requested domains. KeyTalk takes care of correctly configuring the application.
After these preparations, KeyTalk provides a standard text for an email addressed to all users of the service. We explain how email signing works and what our solution does. The text contains two links. The first refers to the KeyTalk agent, the second ensures that the agent is automatically configured with organization-specific settings.
After receiving the email, each user can download the agent and add it to their email address. The app sends a verification email with an automatically generated password. When the agent enters the password, the correct certificate is retrieved and installed. KeyTalk configures the email client to use the certificate.
And ready. The user now sends emails with a digital signature by default and, if desired, also with encryption. As simple as that.
Device Authentication (DA)
In today's digital world, secure authentication for networks (VPN, WIFI) and applications is of vital importance. Managing X.509 personal certificates for 802.1X-based device authentication is an important step to ensure this.
X.509 certificates are used to verify the identity of devices and confirm their access to the network. By using the automated distribution of these certificates, it is possible to optimize and streamline the access management process.
An important advantage of automated X.509 certificate management and distribution is the security it provides. It offers an efficient and effective form of authentication and minimizes the risk of unauthorized access to the network. Additionally, it can improve employee productivity as they do not need to manually manage or install certificates on devices such as laptops or phones.
Another benefit is the ability to respond quickly to changes in the network. When a device is added or removed, the central authority can immediately update it and issue or revoke certificates accordingly.
In summary, automated management and distribution of personal X.509 certificates is an important step in securing networks and minimizing the risk of unauthorized access. It offers efficiency and effectiveness, and can help improve employee productivity.
The KeyTalk Certificate and Key Management System (CKMS) is a Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution suitable for almost any type of business or organization and is ideal for the automated management and distribution of X.509 certificates personal.
Choosing 802.1x EAP/TLS certificate-based authentication, where each approved device in the company gains access to the corporate network using a short-lived authentication certificate and a cryptographic key pair for secure encrypted access, is an excellent option for authentication in a modern organization, but poses challenges for IT administrators if they do not have a CLM such as KeyTalk CKMS.
Since these are private Public certifications such as DigiCert or GlobalSign, there are no fixed costs associated with issuing certificates.
The challenges center on the distribution and installation of the certificates on the device that wants to access the network. This includes both workstations and laptops, tablets and mobile phones today.
Setting up a private certificate root can be complicated due to the need to do it precisely, and there are few IT administrators who have extensive experience in this. Therefore, this feature within the KeyTalk CKMS is completely automated and the configuration of such a certificate root, along with various primary and secondary Certification Authorities, can be achieved in a matter of minutes. Of course, this configuration can be professionally outsourced to specialists from public Certification Authorities such as DigiCert and GlobalSign, but this comes at a considerably higher cost.
Mobile phone certificate-based authentication is a challenge in itself, but here too KeyTalk offers convenience, time savings and control. Increasingly, especially in larger organizations, the distribution and configuration of X.509 certificates for authentication purposes are managed in combination with Mobile Device Management (MDM) systems. Think about solutions like Ms Intune, Mobile Iron or VMware Workspace ONE. All of these MDM systems integrate seamlessly with the KeyTalk CKMS, making it easy and quick to install and configure certificates managed by the KeyTalk CKMS on various user devices through these MDM systems.