SSL/TLS Certificate Security – Management and Expiration Challenges

Digital certificates play a vital role in securing online communications and transactions. They are used to encrypt sensitive data, authenticate users, and protect against various types of cyber threats. However, digital certificates have an expiration date, which requires regular renewals to ensure their continued effectiveness. This process can be challenging and time-consuming, especially for large organizations with many certificates. Furthermore, expired or compromised certificates can lead to damaging service outages, security vulnerabilities, and data breaches. To address these security challenges, Google proposed reducing the maximum validity of public Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates (also known as SSL certificates) from 13 months to just 90 days. This proposed change could have a significant impact on the industry, affecting certificate authorities, browser makers, and organizations that rely on digital certificates for security.