From March 2026, the security and IT operations world will experience a major shift - the maximum validity period for public TLS/SSL certificates is being cut from around 398 days to just 200 days....
Crypto-agility is your organisation’s ability to quickly adapt to new cryptographic standards without disrupting business operations. Today, most organisations rely on fixed algorithms like RSA or ECC.
The push for certificate lifecycle reduction stems from a fundamental truth: certificate lifecycle management is not a team member’s core job role – it's often an afterthought and annoyance, a general admin task. With these changes, this will fundamentally not be the case.
The arrival of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is no longer a theoretical concern, it’s a strategic imperative for businesses across the globe. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recently issued updated guidance that underscores the urgency for all organisations, particularly those operating critical infrastructure or bespoke IT systems, to begin their migration to PQC today.
Digital Certificates are a cornerstone of modern cyber security, serving as a crucial mechanism for maintaining secure, encrypted communications between an end user and a web server. Certificates play a multifaceted role in the digital landscape, but what specific attributes do they offer?
As the CEO of FullProxy, I've always believed that staying ahead of technological disruptions is increasingly the most pressing concern for businesses and public sector organisations across the globe – not just from a cyber security perspective, but as a fundamental safeguard against business interruption.
The recent CA/Browser Forum meeting revealed significant changes to Apple's certificate lifecycles, and they seem to be following Google’s lead. With a proposal to reduce TLS validity periods to just 45 days by 2027, this adjustment to Apple's certificate lifecycles has sparked even more anxious discussion among IT professionals – yes, it’s frustrating, but it’s also important.
Certificate management is a critical part of an organisation’s cyber security that cannot be ignored. Certificates are vital for protecting data transmitted between websites and users. If not properly managed, data could be at significant risk. One certificate option that organisations often consider is wildcard certificates, which provide some benefits but also carry security risks.
Certificate management has become a higher profile challenge recently thanks to Google’s well publicised intention to reduce certificate lifespans, acceptable for use in its popular browser Chrome, to a maximum of 90 days.
Google's announcement to reduce the lifespan of Transport Layer Security (TLS) certificates from 398 days to 90 days continues to be a hot topic of discussion among information security professionals, especially those directly involved in replacing and updating certificates. It’s especially frustrating because – although mooted back in April of 2023 – there’s still no confirmed date for its implementation. Yet Chrome browsers account for just over 50% of all UK web traffic (Statista), so there’s no avoiding the impact that this will have.
