Picture this: You wake up one morning, grab your coffee, and check your email on your laptop. You start reading messages from your best friend, your doctor, your bank. At the end of each email are comments, dozens of comments from people you don’t know. They’re talking about your golf outing, your blood tests, your account balance! In a panic, you quit out of email and go to your banking app to make sure no one has taken your money and you get a warning: “No secure connection available.” Suddenly it strikes you that your comfy, cozy, secure digital life has no locks, no privacy, no holds barred.
This is a world without encryption, a world that would collapse instantly before your eyes.
Catastrophic Consequences
Simply put, without encryption, the internet would lose its entire foundation. Websites would be open books with every movement exposed to interception. Online shopping and banking would be too risky to even attempt. Emails and instant messages would become the equivalent of digital billboards that anyone could read in transit. All those embarrassing photos, inside jokes, etc. in plain sight.
The personal consequences are obvious with medical records exposed, conversations monitored, movements tracked. But the societal dangers would be far greater. Civil liberties would be at risk, free expression suppressed, and the global economy would grind to a complete halt. Cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile banking all rely on encryption to function and complete transactions. Without it, trillions and trillions of dollars would vanish overnight. You think the stock market crash of 1929—and the ensuing Great Depression—was bad. That would be a blip on Wall Street’s history in comparison.
Thankfully, Encryption Exists
Fortunately, this dystopia isn’t our reality—and far from it. Encryption is the silent, reliable foundation of digital trust. SSL/TLS certificates secure billions of daily connections between browsers, apps, and servers. These digital certificates are invaluable in confirming identities and keeping sensitive information private. Without them, the simple act of logging into an account, transferring money, or sending a message—something you take for granted numerous times a day—would be impossible.
So, while we all agree that encryption is here to stay, it’s important to note that the way it’s managed is undergoing a major transformation, a change that will reshape how organizations think about trust.
The State of Encryption Today
The security landscape is changing on two major fronts.
The first is the shrinking lifespan of SSL/TLS certificates. Not long ago, certificates lasted for years, up to five as recently as 2012. Today, the timeline is shortening dramatically, going from 398 days today to 200 by March 2026, 100 by March 2027, and just 47 days by March 2029. These reductions are not arbitrary. They are mandated by the CA/Browser Forum, the governing body of certificate authorities and browser vendors, and are part of a broader, collective effort to strengthen digital trust.
Simply put, shorter SSL/TLS lifespans improve security by reducing the window of opportunity for a compromised certificate to be exploited. They also encourage automation in renewing and deploying certificates so organizations can adapt more quickly. But the flipside is clear as companies must renew and revalidate much more frequently. What was once a yearly IT task is becoming a near-continuous process that not all teams are prepared for, resource or time-wise.
The second front is the rise of post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Quantum computing, while still emerging, poses a potential threat to today’s encryption algorithms. Shorter lifespans are a stepping stone to a more agile cryptographic environment, one that can swap in new standards as they’re developed. TLS 1.3, the latest version of the Transport Layer Security protocol, will provide the foundation for this transition, streamlining the handshake process, removing outdated algorithms, and strengthening encryption compared to earlier versions.
Why Shorter Lifespans Matter
The move to shorter lifespans brings both urgency and risk. For many enterprises, certificate management has long been handled manually with spreadsheets, calendar alerts, and email reminders. As you can imagine, that approach just won’t fly when certificates expire every few weeks. As Henrik Dürr, CEO of TrustZone, states,
“This kind of scale can’t be handled manually, it demands automation that can actually keep up.”
The consequences of getting it wrong are already visible and often well publicized. Expired certificates have caused outages for major services like Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, and even government portals. Each incident disrupts business continuity, erodes user trust, and creates costly reputational damage. Of course, compliance is another pressure point, where frameworks like PCI DSS and HIPAA require secure communications. A single expired certificate can lead to audit failures, penalties, and immeasurable costs.
In short, managing certificates is no longer a background task. Rather, it’s a front-and-center IT responsibility with real business impact.
Who Manages Certificates Inside Companies?
Responsibility for certificates varies depending on the size of the organization. In small businesses, a webmaster or IT generalist often handles certificate renewals, sometimes relying on a hosting provider to automate the process. In mid-sized companies, IT teams or system administrators typically own the process, while marketing and web teams request new certificates when launching websites or microsites. In large enterprises, certificate management often falls under dedicated PKI or security teams responsible for thousands of certificates across websites, APIs, IoT devices, and internal systems.
No matter the size, however, the imperative remains the same for companies: in the move to 47-day lifespans, automation is essential.
The Hidden Costs of Manual PKI
For organizations that continue to rely on manual tools, the risks are growing. As mentioned, expired certificates are not just an inconvenience but can lead to hours of downtime, customer frustration, and even compliance violations. Outdated processes also increase the chance of human error.
The financial costs of manual processes are significant as well. Tracking hundreds or thousands of certificates across cloud platforms, mobile device managers, and internal systems often requires dedicated staff. Each missed deadline compounds labor costs, increases vulnerability, and adds operational strain. As Kevin Naidoo, Founder of Quantum PKI, puts it,
“It’s not just a cert problem — it’s a digital trust crisis.”
Turning Challenge into Advantage
While the shift to shorter lifespans may feel like a burden, it can also create an opportunity. Organizations that embrace automation gain visibility across their entire certificate inventory, ensuring that renewals happen on time and outages are avoided. They reduce costs by freeing engineers from repetitive tasks. They improve compliance through automated reporting and validation logs. And perhaps most importantly, they position themselves to adopt new cryptographic standards quickly when post-quantum algorithms arrive.
For channel partners and managed service providers, the opportunity is even greater. By offering automated certificate lifecycle management, these organizations can turn a customer pain point into a recurring revenue stream. Indeed, automation transforms certificate management from a reactive cost center into a predictable, profitable service model that grows with you.
Preparing for the Future of Encryption
So, what should organizations do today? The first step is visibility, whereby you conduct a thorough audit of all certificates, their expiration dates, and the systems that depend on them. From there, make the commitment to automation. For many companies, adopting the ACME (Automated Certificate Management Environment) protocol is the natural next step toward certificate automation, as it streamlines issuance and renewals. But as certificate volumes and compliance needs grow, ACME alone isn’t enough. That’s why enterprise solutions like GlobalSign integrate ACME into broader lifecycle management platforms, combining automation with visibility, reporting, and enterprise-grade controls.
Finally, embrace crypto-agility. That is, treat encryption not as a one-time setup, but as a living, holistic system that must evolve with emerging threats and standards. The organizations that succeed will be those prepared to swap in new algorithms and adapt quickly as the industry moves toward a post-quantum future. And it’s coming quickly!
Locks That Keep the Digital World Open
Now back to that frightening scenario at the beginning. Imagine again that your email, your medical records, and your bank app were all exposed. That’s the world without encryption.
Now contrast it with the reality we live in today. You shop online, send private messages, and transfer money with confidence. The locks on your digital life are invisible, but without them, the internet would suddenly collapse.
On Global Encryption Day, take a moment to appreciate the unseen technology that makes trust, privacy, and digital freedom possible. And remember, encryption is evolving too. Certificate lifespans are shrinking, and post-quantum computing is on the horizon. The organizations that really thrive will be those that embrace automation and agility today.
GlobalSign helps you stay ahead of ever-evolving encryption standards with proven experience and expertise trusted by leading organizations the world over.
