Topic starter
10/07/2026 9:17 pm
TL;DR: Digital certificate usage and transaction volumes have risen 30% since 2021, while poor storage, duplicate copies on devices, weak auditing, and lifecycle gaps continue to expose organisations to identity theft, key theft, forgery, and service disruption, according to Vintegris. The governance problem is no longer certificate availability but certificate custody, traceability, and revocation discipline.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Vintegris: “Hidden Risks in the Use of Digital Certificates”.
By the numbers:
- Since 2021, the number of transactions and digital certificates managed by organizations has increased by 30%.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when digital certificates are copied across multiple devices?
A: When certificates are copied across multiple devices, the organisation loses control over which instance is authoritative.
Q: Why do certificate custody failures create regulatory and accountability risk?
A: Because certificates are used for legally meaningful authentication and digital signatures, poor custody weakens traceability and the ability to prove who used the credential and when.
Q: What are the signs that certificate lifecycle processes are not working properly?
A: Common warning signs include delayed renewals, unnoticed expirations, inconsistent revocation, slow onboarding for new users or devices, and poor visibility into certificate status.
Practitioner guidance
- Inventory every certificate copy Track certificate owners, storage locations, device associations, and intended use so duplicate copies can be identified and removed.
- Enforce post-migration deletion Require certificate removal from old devices and shared locations whenever a user, workstation, or signing workflow changes.
- Bind certificate use to explicit authorization Restrict which applications, users, and workflows can exercise a certificate, and record each permitted use as evidence.
Bottom line: Digital certificate sprawl turns trust services into a custody and traceability problem when copies persist across devices and locations.
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10/07/2026 9:39 pm
Digital certificate sprawl is a custody problem disguised as a scale problem: once certificates are copied across devices and locations, the organisation loses reliable control over where trust material resides. The article shows that issuance growth without deletion discipline creates the real security gap. Practitioners should therefore measure certificate sprawl as an ownership and custody failure, not a volume metric.
A few things that frame the scale:
- According to the 2023 State of Machine Identity Management report, only 47% of companies have enough staff dedicated to their PKI.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How should organisations govern digital certificates in shared and remote environments?
A: They should treat certificates as controlled credentials, not portable files. That means centralised custody, explicit authorisation for use, evidence of activity, and a reliable process for revocation and deletion when devices or responsibilities change.
👉 Read our full editorial: Digital certificate sprawl is turning trust services into security risk