In 2026, SSL/TLS digital certificates will be renewed every 200 days.
The shortening of SSL/TLS certificate validity, effective from March 2026, presents a new challenge for security and IT teams. Efficient certificate lifecycle management will be key to preventing disruptions and vulnerabilities that compromise digital trust.
Until recently, the impact of digital certificate expirations on organizations was minimal, but the emergence of advanced technologies such as quantum computing and AI, coupled with new regulatory measures, accelerated the pace of automation.
The news is that there is a date marked in red on the calendar and on the agenda of all cybersecurity professionals: on March 15, 2026, the validity period of SSL/TLS digital certificates will be reduced from one year to just 200 days, following the decision adopted by the CA/Browser Forum, the entity that regulates global digital trust standards.
“The reduction in certificate validity means that any management error can result in expirations, service interruptions, or critical vulnerabilities. In environments where administration is still done manually—with templates, scattered reminders, or decentralized processes—the risk of failures is ever-increasing. This change, which will impact all organizations worldwide, poses an operational and strategic challenge for CISOs and IT teams, who will have to double the frequency with which they issue and renew certificates,” says Néstor Markowicz, CCO of CertiSur.
In this context, Discovery & Automation solutions become an indispensable requirement. These tools enable:
- Detect all the stock of certificates in use within the organization.
- Identify risks and critical expiration dates.
- Automate renewals and deployments.
- Avoid system interruptions and crashes.
The countdown has already begun
“We are helping our clients prepare not only for 2026, but also for what’s to come: in 2027 the validity period will be reduced to 100 days and in 2029 it will drop to just 47 days. The future of PKI management is, inevitably, with automation,” added Markowicz.
With less than a year until the measure comes into effect, the expected impact will be significant: it will double the workload of IT teams and test the maturity of digital security processes in companies.
The question is no longer whether this change will happen, but how organizations are preparing to face it. “At CertiSur, we work to offer services that allow clients to discover the certificates on their platform and automate their management,” the company stated.
Furthermore, the COO emphasizes that “organizations need to become more agile in crypto-agility.” This means using tools that allow them to quickly manage their certificates because, as new technologies advance, the algorithms used in encryption become more vulnerable.
‘It’s impossible to maintain manual management in this new scenario. An IT analyst and Excel aren’t enough. The only viable alternative is automation,’ warns Néstor Markowicz.