Securing IoT and Beyond: ACME's Role in Automated Certificate Management
The Automated Certificate Management Environment (ACME) protocol is usually adopted by businesses and organizations that need increased efficiency and security for their websites accessed by user devices and servers. However, did you know this protocol can also be implemented in an Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, making the system secure against cyberattacks and intrusions?
Recently, IoT has been used to collect, control, and exchange data in home automation systems, technologically modern urban areas or smart cities, and industrial applications. So that's why it's essential to ensure that no vulnerabilities exist that cybercriminals can exploit, causing excessive downtime, significant financial losses, and inconvenience. Look at how ACME protocols benefit IoT systems and can help IoT ecosystems stay consistently secure and connected without interruption.
The Benefits of ACME For IoT Platforms
ACME has become the standardized protocol for automating the lifecycle management of certificates seamlessly. Communication and information between the SSL Certificate Authority (CA) and the certificate user is automatically exchanged as a certificate goes through the lifecycle process.
This protocol allows for consistent and dependable security even when certificates are revoked or expired by enabling the CA to authenticate and issue replacement certificates automatically. It has become increasingly beneficial for banks, healthcare systems, and e-commerce businesses to keep their websites and customers' personal information safe by automatically maintaining valid certificates that are in place at all times.
For IoT ecosystems that may be controlling locks on homes, monitoring a community's drinking water, or making a manufacturing process more efficient, the hazards of human error or manual PKI management can leave these systems vulnerable to devastating consequences. The benefits of ACME protocols for IoT ecosystems are minimizing downtime, enhanced security, and connections that are impervious to attack.
How ACME Contributes to a More Secure and Connected Ecosystem
IoT ecosystems consist of wireless communication between devices or sensors, cloud servers, and user devices, leaving all components vulnerable to intrusions and attacks. Imagine a cybercriminal being able to control the locks on homes or shut down the water system in a city. Certificate and PKI management makes communication between servers and devices more secure through authentication.
An SSL certificate has to be periodically replaced to prevent cybercriminals from compromising the certificate or immediately replaced when a certificate has been compromised. However, manually managing the certificates opens up the possibility of unnoticed expired or revoked security certificates, which leaves vulnerabilities to attack. ACME protocols allow the automatic request, creation, issue, and verification of replacement certificates when the expired or revoked certificates have been destroyed, leaving no room for error or weakness.
Automated Certificate Management With Sectigo
Large-scale data breaches or malware intrusions in an IoT ecosystem can cause your product to have disastrous effects on individuals or the community. And while you may have manual certificate management protocols in place, they may not be enough to avoid these catastrophes.
With a Sectigo certificate manager, you can protect all your connected devices within the ecosystem, no matter the trust models, devices, operating systems, chipset architecture, or protocols you employ. Being able to update digital certificates in real-time and monitoring all of the certificates in one place will make the difference for certificate issuance and management and the safety and security of your product.
