New Research Shows That Legacy PKI Puts Digital Identities at Risk, With 56% of Organizations Experiencing Services Disruption

CyberArk (NASDAQ: CYBR), the global leader in identity security, today announced the findings of a new report: Trends in PKI Security: A Global Study of Trends, Challenges & Business Impact. Conducted by Ponemon Institute, a leading independent research firm, the CyberArk-commissioned research analyzes perspectives from nearly 2,000 IT and security practitioners globally on the state of public key infrastructure (PKI) security. It reveals that outdated PKI systems are the leading barrier to secure certificate management, fueling security exploits in 60% of organizations.

PKI is a system for creating and managing digital certificates that verify the identities of users and devices. Modern identity demands – driven by the rise of machine and workload identities across cloud native and zero trust environments – have resulted in unprecedented certificate growth and complexity.

Legacy PKI systems and rapid certificate growth are hidden cost drivers
The report shows that PKI remains essential for secure digital identity, but legacy systems with fragmented approaches and manual, human-led processes can’t keep up with today’s certificate needs. Without a modern, automated approach, the gap between certificate demand and organizational capacity will only widen, leaving organizations facing resource constraints and increased operational costs.

• 34% of organizations cite legacy PKI costs and risks as the top barrier to secure PKI.
• On average, organizations oversee more than 114,000 internal certificates but have only four full-time staff dedicated to PKI management.
• 63% are forced to outsource PKI management due to resource and expertise shortages.

Manual processes amplify security risks
Manual tracking and renewal processes are both inefficient and potentially risky for organizations, causing costly services disruption and security exploits.

• 56% have suffered unplanned outages due to expired certificates or configuration errors.
• 60% experienced security exploits as a result of weak cryptography.
• 58% suffered third-party certificate authority (CA) compromises.
• 43% experienced server private key theft.

“The rapid expansion of machine identities has completely changed the PKI operating model. The complexity of managing an increasing number of certificates is compounded by legacy systems, manual processes and resource constraints,” said Kurt Sand, GM of Machine Identity Security at CyberArk. “As certificate volumes grow and certificate lifespans continue to shrink, the financial and operational impact of unmanaged PKI will escalate rapidly. Now is the time for organizations to automate and modernize their PKI to reduce operational burdens and improve their overall security posture.”