Computer security firm Symantec has released a new cloud-based service for enterprises with large numbers of certificates used for business authentication and data encryption on servers.
The company said that Symantec Certificate Intelligence Center discovers, centralises, and provides in-depth insight through advanced reporting which enables organisations to proactively manage certificates from any Certificate Authority (CA).
Symantec claimed that it is for the first time that enterprises have total visibility and control over their certificates.
Managing Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates is critically important for enterprises and is becoming a larger challenge with diverse range of devices being used today.
Recently, a few instances have surfaced in which hackers have attacked companies that authenticate websites with their certificates.
SSL certificates enable the verification of business identity as extended to a server. The company said that until now getting comprehensive information on all SSL certificates, regardless of CA, across complex enterprise networks has been expensive, time consuming and resource-intensive.
The company said Symantec Certificate Intelligence Center answers many enterprises’ reuquirement for an easily achievable central certificate data repository and an affordable, automated scanning service.
Symantec Certificate Intelligence Center automatically evaluates certificates nearing expiration and triggers alerts based on an administrator’s configurations. The company said that centralisation and automation are an improvement over current scattered and manual SSL accounting processes in spreadsheets.
Symantec Trust Services vice-president Fran Rosch said Symantec Certificate Intelligence Center illustrates Symantec’s commitment to helping enterprises get the most out of their SSL Certificate investments.
Rosch said, "Over the last year, this service was developed in consultation with more than 25 Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies with the key goal to create a simple and usable solution to centralize certificate data and automate core lifecycle processes. Symantec Certificate Intelligence Center will make certificate management easier than ever — an important advantage as more enterprises adopt cloud-based certificate solutions to power the next generation of security applications."
