PKI Solutions introduced a new version of PKI Spotlight, a real-time monitoring and alerting system that provides live status, availability, configuration, and security of PKI environments (Microsoft PKI and others) and hardware security modules (HSMs). The latest release of PKI Spotlight has increased its award winning "Best Practices" alerting to more than 115. These Best Practice alerts are designed to aid organizations with operational resiliency, security posture management, threat detection, and refined PKI operational and configuration best practices.

Unfortunately for most organizations, their PKI was installed and then almost forgotten. In reality, a healthy PKI (like most security systems) needs constant review. PKI Spotlight maintains the security and integrity of PKIs with visibility into configurations that can impact identity and encryption systems in a manner that reduces an organization's risk for business continuity and security threats.

"The distributed nature of PKI creates operational challenges that aren't addressed by certificate lifecycle management or existing generic system monitoring products," said Mark B. Cooper, President, PKI Solutions. "PKI Spotlight allows users to easily and effectively manage their PKI and HSM environments to keep them available, functional, and most importantly: Secure at all times. Real-time alerts spot problems in an instant so teams can resolve issues or threats before they become a problem."

Cooper added, "PKI is the foundation for secure communication and authentication in the digital world. Managing digital certificates, keys, and trust relationships effectively is crucial to maintaining a robust PKI infrastructure. Without this important trust relationship, a hacker can masquerade as a legitimate company resource and only after-the-fact will a company know it's been compromised. PKI Spotlight's new best practice alerts further enhance the platform's ability to identify and rectify potential security weaknesses proactively."

The benefits of best practice alerts in PKI Spotlight's latest release include:

• Heightened Security Preparedness: Administrators gain enhanced ability to identify and rectify potential security weaknesses in real-time. These alerts cover areas from cryptographic algorithm compliance, trust chain validation, security configuration settings, and emerging threats. Addressing these alerts quickly helps organizations bolster their security preparedness and reduce the risk of threats.
• Enhanced Compliance and Regulatory Adherence: Compliance with industry regulations and standards is critical for PKIs to enable organizations to strengthen their compliance posture. These alerts offer insights into compliance violations and highlight areas that require immediate attention and improvement. This helps organizations adhere to industry and company standards, safeguard sensitive data and meet regulatory compliance.
• Streamlined PKI Management Efficiency: Streamlined PKI management helps administrators prioritize their efforts based on the criticality of each alert for better resource allocation and efficient operations, which reduces administration tasks.
• Continuous Learning and Knowledge Enrichment: Continuous learning and knowledge enrichment among PKI administrators and security teams through regular alerts and implementing recommended practices fosters a culture of security awareness. Administrators gain valuable insights into emerging threats, industry best practices, and evolving compliance requirements. This empowers them to make informed decisions, proactively address vulnerabilities, and stay ahead of potential security risks.
• Removing the Unintended Consequences Risk: All too often, people who manage a PKI will perform a simple change which can have a cascading effect throughout the PKI. PKI Spotlight will send an alert that this change is in violation of a Best Practice and allow the company to make the correction quickly.