Most businesses don’t have track of all their digital certificates and keys, and many are unable to track the identities of all machines across their IT networks, opening up doors to potential data breaches and similar hacking incidents.
A new report published by secure machine identity management and application delivery automation firm, AppViewX polling 1,000 IT security decision-makers found that of the enterprises lacking certificate and key awareness, almost all (96 percent) experienced events crippling their operations, such as cybersecurity breaches, hindered employee productivity, system outages and financial losses (as a direct consequence of those outages).
Most business leaders see this as a problem and are planning on addressing it in the coming 12 months, but there are challenges. Some of the main problems standing in the way of them enhancing their machine identity include the complexity of managing certificates across all areas of IT infrastructure; a lack of skill sets within IT and security teams; having a management process that is too time-consuming to be upgraded and not having enough money.
Forward-looking enterprises don’t seem too discouraged by these challenges, the report further claims, stating that many have already begun implementing automated machine identity management workflows, or taken their first steps in managing certificate lifecycles on hybrid deployment models.
Almost all (95 percent) adopted machine identity management-as-a-service.
These services, the company claims, brings many benefits, including heightened awareness of certificates and keys; the ability to access certificates and keys faster, stronger security credentials, and lowered chances of outages due to certificate expiry or human error.