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GlobalSign Auto Enrollment Gateway (AEG) Provides Automated Certificate Lifecycle Management for Microsoft Active Directory
August 2013 by Marc Jacob
GlobalSign, the enterprise SaaS Certificate Authority (CA), today announced availability of the GlobalSign Auto Enrollment Gateway (AEG). AEG integrates with Windows Active Directory (AD), allowing enterprises to automate the enrolment, provisioning and management of GlobalSign Digital Certificates for Windows environments. By replacing their internal CAs with GlobalSign’s proven services, enterprises strengthen security and reduce costs by adding certificate-based solutions such as two-factor authentication and advanced SSL without having to manage their own highly complex and costly internal CA. Because GlobalSign SaaS Certificate Services provide the latest best practices and highest standards in certificate technology, enterprises using them reduce their risk of falling victim to attacks that take advantage of weak and mismanaged certificates. Eliminating the need to manage a resource-intensive internal CA reduces the total cost of ownership of the public key infrastructure (PKI), as well as the risk of system outages that stall business activities.
As noted in research published by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, certificates have been increasingly targeted by attackers, who are successfully exploiting known vulnerabilities such as untrusted self-signed certificates, certificates configured for weak encryption and unwieldy certificate revocation mechanisms. In addition, attackers have successfully pulled off more sophisticated exploits such as fraudulently issuing certificates from trusted third-party authorities and forging certificates that are relied upon for code-signing.
The GlobalSign AEG provides multiple security and cost-savings benefits as well as enhanced risk mitigation. Seamless integration with Microsoft AD allows enterprises to automate PKI management as well as certificate provisioning and deployment across Windows-based networks, a capability that strengthens PKIs, establishes internal and external trusted communications, and reduces costs.
The solution offers a number of business benefits:
· Risk mitigation: Certificate management by a public trusted CA protects against vulnerabilities and threats.
· Compliance: Proper management ensures that certificates remain valid and do not cause the enterprise to become noncompliant.
· Cost savings: GlobalSign AEG cuts costs by putting management in the hands of PKI experts, removing the need for resources to manage PKI and preventing breaches that could be devastating to businesses, causing brand damage and loss in revenue.
· Enhanced productivity: Proper PKI management ensures continued uptime, eliminates the interruption of mission-critical operations due to invalid certificates and offers employees remote, secure access to company networks.
Additional features and benefits include:
· Easily deployed Public Key Operation (PKO) solutions: AEG supports a wide range of use cases that require strong two-factor authentication, from client authentication of remote workforces accessing the network through VPNs and Wi-Fi to privileged access of highly sensitive resources and systems via smart-card authentication.
· Scalability: Organisations can easily scale to higher-volume deployments to accommodate growth.
· AD integration: AEG provides seamless, often transparent, certificate life-cycle management, avoiding disruptions and security concerns through immediate detection and replacement of expired certificates.
· SaaS CA: AEG eliminates need for internal CAs, e.g. Microsoft CA, thus reducing management costs and complexity as well as overall PKI TCO.
· Strongest available certificates: 2048-bit encryption ensures protection against even the most advanced certificate and PKI-based attacks.
· Automated PKI management: This liberates IT to focus on core competencies and business-driving IT projects.
