Problems with some Amazon Web Services cloud servers caused slow loading or failures for significant chunks of the internet. Amazon’s widespread network of data centers powers many of the online interactions. It is not surprising that any problem has massive rippling effects similar to previous Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage incidents. There were reports from network admins everywhere about errors connecting to Amazon’s instances and the AWS Management Console that controls their access to the servers.
There has never been a discussion on the cloud without touching upon its security features, generally perceived as inadequate. While multicloud and hybrid deployments’ distributed nature makes them highly available and resilient, in-house IT teams lose control over data security.
As organizations adopt cloud-native architectures and switch to fast-moving container environments and DevOps practices, there is an avalanche of virtual devices created, used, and wiped out in hours. This has, in turn, led to the unprecedented growth of machine identities. With these devices increasingly moving out of the security purview of the perimeter and exchanging massive amounts of data continuously, it is critical for organizations to manage their identities and secure machine-to-machine communication to avoid security breaches.
The ramifications that SolarWinds suffered due to the attacks show that a machine identity compromise can cause as much impact as human identity compromise. Any lapse in machine identity management can have a debilitating effect on an organization’s security posture. Therefore, the seriousness of managing machine identities cannot be overstated.
Four Valuable PKI Use Cases in Modern Digital Enterprises
Public key infrastructure (PKI) and machine identities are critical for securing everything from containers and virtual machines to applications and code in this new era of digital transformation. While your journey to the cloud doesn’t give birth to new PKI and certificate management challenges, it doubles down on the gaps, which existed in traditional IT.
Limited visibility, lack of trust, growing complexities, heavier workloads, and lack of integrations have always posed serious challenges.
What are machine identities?
Similar to how people use their account usernames and passwords to validate their identities, all applications, workloads, and devices in a business environment use digital certificates and keys as their identities in a corporate network. Only after a machine authenticates itself with its identity will it communicate with another machine on the network. Because of these digital certificates and keys, organizations can secure access to devices and applications and enable secure machine-to-machine communication regardless of where they are located. And machine identity management revolves around governing and orchestrating these digital certificates and keys, which form the building blocks of a true zero-trust framework.
Certificate lifecycle automation tools help automate the entire lifecycle of certificate management. Once the tool is integrated with an environment, it allows for zero-touch execution of certificate renewals, monitoring, discovery, revocation, and more. In short, they offer a surefire way to ensure that manual effort in repetitive processes is eliminated, human contact with the system is minimized, and the entire system is risk-free. In the long run, this translates to becoming crypto agile and cyber-resilient that helps tackle new and evolving attack vectors smartly.
As multicloud and hybrid-cloud environments become more commonplace, zero-trust becomes crucial to securing cloud assets. Implementing a zero-trust framework requires a robust machine identity management system, which can efficiently manage and secure digital identities.
AppViewX can help
AppViewX CERT+ is purpose-built to enable zero-trust by streamlining certificate management and making the entire system more flexible, adaptable, and efficient. CERT+ automation capabilities are tailored to understand the access management requirements of today’s cloud infrastructures and enforce best practices from the ground up.
While many market solutions promise simplicity through automation, AppViewX CERT+ is trusted and chosen for delivering security with simplicity through automation, the best-kept secret to securing the digital enterprise. CERT+ can either be consumed as a service or deployed in the enterprise network. Features, capabilities, and benefits of CERT+ remain the same irrespective of the mode of consumption.
Managing Machine Identities and Mitigating Risks with Certificate Lifecycle Automation
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About the Author
Sanchita Chakraborti
Director, Product Marketing – AppViewX CERT+
Sanchita is a Product Marketer responsible for understanding the industry landscape, buyer personas, their pain points and translating them into compelling value propositions and messaging.
