Popular amongst corporations, the public key infrastructure (PKI) is a cyber security protocol and method for authenticating, validating, and encrypting digital information. Cyber security protocols are critical for major organizations such as online commerce stores and businesses. PKIs have been in use for more than five decades and continue to be the leading security protocol for influential organizations.
E-commerce companies require PKIs due to the large volume of private data about consumer details they handle. Failure to secure such data properly could lead to lawsuits about data leakages, privacy violations, and loss of company reputation. Due to the evolving nature of cybercrimes, e-commerce businesses must develop proper means and protocols for managing PKIs to avoid the adverse consequences of data hacks.
What Are The Benefits Of Pkis?
PKI consists of procedures and policies used to manage, save and revoke digital security certificates. It facilitates a seamless and secure transfer of data and information among the organization's departments and partners. Therefore, a managed PKI will promote data integrity, security by allowing the organization to transfer, encrypt, and decrypt data without fear of hacking or data loss. Failure to manage the PKIs could lead the organization to severe damages and consequences such as loss of confidential data.
How E-commerce Organizations Can Manage Pkis
The Use Of Unique Information Security Hierarchy Design
There are various types of information security hierarchy designs that e-commerce businesses can adapt to meet their security needs. Designs such as Tevora's Two-Tier Hierarchy Design are suitable for security-focused organizations such as e-commerce stores. The designs allow for multiple deployments issuing Certificate Authority from different locations. This will boost the security protocol more than single tire designs.
E-commerce businesses can use more than three-tier hierarchy designs to boost information security and limit the ease of accessing an organization's information without proper authority. This will minimize the ease of hackers accessing the organization's mainframe and database. By making hacking difficult and increasing the time required to hack an organization's database, these hierarchy designs allow the company to track the source of the hack and boost protocols to prevent such hacks.
Instilling Pki Best Practices
PKI best practices refer to the organization's policies, procedures, and protocols to control the levels of data access and the persons that can access the data. Online commerce businesses should have stringent PKI practices since the hacks can come from multiple sources, including customers. Some PKI best practices for e-commerce companies include:
Frequent System Updates And Upgrades
As computer technology evolves, other computer crimes are also evolving. The evolution should motivate organizations to consistently update their systems to stay ahead of hackers and data security threats. To ensure data safety, organizations should frequently review and update data security protocols, practices, and features to ensure data safety. Furthermore, these updates should also focus on the changing e-commerce environment, organization practices, activities, and services. They can affect the existing PKIs leaving the organization vulnerable to attacks.
All the systems must be considered and reviewed during the updates and upgrades to avoid leaving any data breach loopholes. The upgrades should apply to all the systems regardless of the usage levels or the types of employees using them. In addition, these upgrades should focus on significant security features apart from the certificates. The organization should also update the flexible business terms and license issuance conditions hence preventing any security challenges.
Using Additional Tools
There are additional tools and features e-commerce companies can use to manage the PKIs. These features include multiple security protocols such as biometric recognition systems to supplement the passwords and other data authentication features. Companies can also use digital signing techniques to ensure the integrity of the codes provided for data access.
The use of active directory integration saves the organization from managing PKIs in-house, leading to PKI inevitable mistakes. The certificate inventory tool enables the organization to locate internal and public certificates on the network, making it easier to monitor the expiration and renewal dates.
The Bottom Line
The greatest challenge when handling PKIs is management, as failure to be keen and careful could damage the organization. E-commerce companies should put more effort into PKI management the same way a lot of attention is given to the implementation stage. PKIs are the most critical resources to ensure e-commerce businesses run successfully; one mistake could mess the entire organization.
