The future of PKI will be 100% automatic

Until just a few years ago, digital certificate expirations rarely appeared among organizations' main concerns. But the emergence of new technologies—such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence—together with greater regulatory requirements, drastically accelerated timelines and the need to automate processes. The critical date is already set: on March 15, 2026, the validity of SSL/TLS certificates will be reduced from one year to just 200 days, according to the decision of the CA/Browser Forum, the body that sets global digital trust standards. 'The reduction in validity means that any error in management can lead to expirations, service outages, or serious vulnerabilities. In environments where everything is managed manually with spreadsheets, isolated alerts, or scattered processes, the risk of failures increases considerably. This change, which will affect all organizations worldwide, presents an operational and strategic challenge: teams will need to double the pace of certificate issuance and renewal,' explains Néstor Markowicz , CCO of CertiSur.

Automation: from recommendation to requirement

In this scenario, the solutions of Discovery & Automation cease to be a best practice and become an essential component of security management. These technologies enable:

Map and detect all certificate stock in use.
Identify risks and critical expiration dates.
Automate renewal and deployment processes.
Prevent interruptions, system outages, and security breaches.

The countdown has begun

'We are helping our customers prepare not only for 2026, but for what comes next: in 2027 the validity will drop to 100 days, and in 2029, to 47 days. The future of PKI management will be, without exception, automatic', anticipates Markowicz . With less than a year ahead, the impact will be significant: the workload of IT teams will double, and the maturity of digital security processes will be tested across all sectors. The discussion is no longer about whether the measure will be implemented, but about how organizations are preparing to face it. 'Our goal is to offer services that allow discovering all certificates on a platform and automating their management', note from CertiSur. Markowicz adds a key point: the need to advance toward crypto-agility. 'Current algorithms become more vulnerable as emerging technologies advance. Organizations need to be able to react quickly, and that can only be achieved with automated tools. It is not feasible to sustain manual management. An IT analyst and an Excel spreadsheet are not enough: the only viable alternative is to automate'.Prensario