By Byron V. Acohido

Confidence in the privacy and security of hyper-connected digital services is an obvious must have.

Yet, Digital Trust today is not anywhere near the level it needs to be. At RSAC 2024 I had a wide-ranging conversation with DigiCert CEO Amit Sinha all about why Digital Trust has proven to be so elusive. For a full drill down, please give the accompanying podcast a listen.

We spoke about how the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) has come under pressure. PKI and digital certificates provide the essential framework for authenticating identities, encrypting communications and ensuring data integrity.

However, with the shift to remote work and the proliferation of Internet of Things systems, the complexity of maintaining a fundamental level of trust in digital services has risen exponentially.

And that curve will only steepen as GenAI/LLM services ramp up and quantum computers get mainstreamed, Sinha observed.

Sinha highlighted the importance of automation and comprehensive control in managing digital certificate sprawl. With respect to AI innovation, Sinha noted a couple of near -term concerns: distinguishing real from fake content and ensuring the integrity of the software supply chain. With so many more connections being made, extending and scaling the PKI framework to help mitigate these new exposures makes sense and can be done, he argues.

At same time, companies need to stay in step with efforts National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to implement quantum-resistant algorithms. DigiCert supports this push and is hosting the first World Quantum Readiness Day on September 26.

Digital Trust absolutely needs to be on the front burner. I’ll keep watch and keep reporting.

Acohido

Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist Byron V. Acohido is dedicated to fostering public awareness about how to make the Internet as private and secure as it ought to be.

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(LW provides consulting services to the vendors we cover.)

June 13th, 2024