DigiCert report: Certificate outages costing firms more than $250,000

A survey by DigiCert reveals that certificate-related incidents are becoming increasingly expensive for organizations. According to the ‘Certificate Management Outlook’ report, nearly one in four surveyed companies reported that their most severe certificate incident cost more than $250,000, marking a 5 percentage point increase from the previous year.

More than one-third of organizations experienced service outages due to expired certificates in the past year. Among those affected, nearly three-quarters reported at least five hours of downtime, while one in five experienced 25 hours or more. These incidents are increasingly viewed as infrastructure risks rather than just security team concerns, with over half of respondents classifying them as such.

While automated certificate lifecycle management has risen to the third highest cybersecurity priority—surpassing compliance simplification and IoT security—implementation lags behind. Only 10 percent of organizations reported having functional automation in place. Mike Nelson, Global Vice President at DigiCert, noted that as certificate lifespans shrink to 47 days, manual tracking methods like spreadsheets and calendar reminders are no longer scalable.