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Keeping Up with Computer Security Changes

One area you may want to consider looking for help in is computer certificate and key management. Having seamless and automated security implementations can improve every aspect of your business and assist you in maintaining and growing your customer base.

Reasons to Plan for Security Needs that Follow Your Business Growth Model

Potential challenges your business may face if you aren’t prepared with appropriate, timely security implementations include:

• Downtime and system outages
• Private key compromise
• Compliance violations
• Unnecessarily high administrative costs

All these problems can easily be avoided with planning and foresight. One challenge in managing the right certificates and keys can be keeping track of expiration dates and vital information about each key. When you automate your management system, your inventory of every certificate and key will be easier to access. For example, Microsoft recently made changes to their Windows platform security certificate requirements. Microsoft noted that businesses holding certificates with keys less than 1024 bits may find their customers encountering a variety of issues when attempting to access their websites or services. A lesson to take from this is that unless you want people to have challenges browsing your website, downloading information or purchasing product or services, it’s prudent to be prepared for certificate requirement changes for all platforms your customers may access.

Understanding the Lingo

In order to have a basic understanding of why you want your security implementations to adapt as your business growth changes, we’ll define a few terms you’ll frequently come across on this subject. Security Implementations:  Security implementations include the steps you take to lessen the amount of exterior attacks on your company’s computer system. Since the majority of operating systems are naturally vulnerable, it makes sense to use security implementations that will work to minimize the situations created when criminals try to interfere with your business. Certificate Authority:  A certificate authority is a third-party organization that verifies the information or identity of computers on a network and issues digital certificates of authenticity. Digital certificates are used to confirm the identities of the parties exchanging information. Encryption Keys: Encryption keys encrypt and/or decrypt algorithms (codes used to tell a computer system how to accomplish a particular task) that transfer data into supposedly random letter and numbers, thereby making it difficult for someone to intercept the original transmission. Give Your Employees the Necessary Tools Providing the appropriate team members with the right tools to protect and manage your computer security is worth the time and expense saved if you discover a job wasn’t done right. It’s unreasonable to have certain expectations, like adherence to vital data encryption policy, if your employees don’t have the knowledge or access to programs that will make your expectations a reality. Potential Customer Problems That Can Be Avoided Customers may experience one or more of several problems if your security implementations are lacking. Some of those difficulties may include:

• Applications that fail when access is attempted
• Service outages
• Orders can’t be processed
• Personal information exposure
• Loss of confidence in your business

Any one of these issues should be a cause for concern as they could be fatal for your company, particularly if your customers determine that you are no longer capable of handling their business. The Bottom Line Employing preventative security measures can save time and money. Be prepared for the majority of computer security situations your company might encounter with planning and forethought even if that means calling in a certificate and keys expert. You’ll rest easier when you know that each part of your business is receiving the attention it deserves. Rick Delgado is a freelance writer for Venafi.com. Venafi provides solutions to help both large and small corporations manage digital certificates. You can create and manage your comprehensive certificate and key inventory as your business needs grow with their industry-leading SSL certificate management solutions.