Employees are no longer chained to desktop machines confined within the corporate firewall. Thus, it is imperative that enterprises can trust the data and applications on their employees’ mobile devices. To tackle this, mobile device management (MDM) platforms have emerged to remotely provision, manage applications, track inventory, and enforce organization policies to secure corporate information.
Such device management capabilities have helped companies keep mobile devices secure while keeping the workforce flexible and productive. To bolster device security, MDM platforms support digital certificates. Savvy enterprises can optimize their MDM investment and gain efficiency by getting certificates on mobile devices as well as revoking them when necessary.
A digital certificate (also known as an identity certificate or public key certificate) is an electronic credential that can prove the authenticity of a user, device, server, or website. It uses PKI (public key infrastructure) to allow individuals and organizations to communicate and securely exchange data.
A digital certificate contains a public key and the identity of the owner and is issued by certification authorities (CAs), thus verifying the identity of a device or user that is requesting access. To ensure validity, the public key should match the corresponding private key of the recipient. A digital certificate contains the following information –
Most IT leaders agree that usernames and passwords alone aren’t sufficient for enterprises to protect their IT assets. Digital certificates are time-tested for successfully securing data and networks. Their foundation in public key encryption technology makes them an excellent option for strong authentication and adds an extra layer of security. Organizations can use digital certificates to authenticate user access for protecting VPNs, Wi-Fi, and other applications.
Mobile devices and operating systems support digital certificates well. The predominant applications using digital certificates on mobile devices include VPN, Wi-Fi, email, and websites. Mainly, digital certificates can be delivered by most enterprise mobile device management platforms. The commonly used certificates are –
IT admins can upload the required MDM certificates and distribute them to managed devices. Follow the steps to add certificates using Scalefusion –
Note – Scalefusion supports PKCS12(.p12) and PKCS1(cer, pem) files. |
The uploaded certificates can be distributed on the device profiles or to the respective mobile devices.
To secure today’s expanding ecosystem of mobile devices, IT teams need an efficient way to distribute digital certificates and gain visibility into the organization’s device environment. Using a mobile device management platform can simplify the deployment experience of digital certificates as well as provide additional security over mobile devices.
Streamline your certificate management process with Scalefusion MDM. Get a free 14-day trial! |