The future of PKI will be 100% automatic
The future of PKI will be 100% automatic. The emergence of new technologies, along with increased regulatory demands, has drastically accelerated the need to automate processes.
Until a few years ago, digital certificate expiration dates were rarely among the top concerns for organizations. But the emergence of new technologies—such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence—along with stricter regulatory requirements, has dramatically accelerated the timeline and the need to automate processes.
The critical date has already been 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 reduced validity period means that any management error can lead to expirations, service outages, or serious vulnerabilities. In environments where everything is managed manually with spreadsheets, isolated alerts, or dispersed processes, the risk of failures increases considerably. This change, which will affect all organizations worldwide, presents an operational and strategic challenge: teams will have to double the rate of certificate issuance and renewal,” explains Néstor Markowicz, CCO of CertiSur.
Automation: from recommendation to requirement
In this scenario, Discovery & Automation solutions cease to be a best practice and become an essential component of security management. These technologies enable:
- Map and detect the entire stock of certificates in use.
- Identify risks and critical expiration dates.
- Automate the renewal and deployment processes.
- Prevent interruptions, system crashes, and security breaches.
The countdown has already begun
‘We are helping our clients prepare not only for 2026, but for what’s to come: in 2027 the validity period will decrease 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 to go, 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 you to discover all the certificates on a platform and automate their management,’ says CertiSur.
Markowicz adds a key point: the need to move towards 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. Manual management is no longer viable. An IT analyst and Excel spreadsheet aren’t enough: the only viable alternative is automation.’