The care and feeding of digital certificates

In a recent article, Help Net Security defines the uses of digital certificates and the need to manage certificates in the Enterprise.  Starting with an easy to understand explanation of how certificates prove identity of servers and enable encryption, originally for the Secure Sockets Layer of HTTPS, but now expanded to other servers, email between clients and movile devices.  Since certificates are issued with an expiration date, and low-security certificates can be introduced into networks by unscrupulous individuals, the need to control and monitor certificates is now greater than ever.