Three major UK retailers made headlines recently due to cyber-attacks, and while the news cycle moves on quickly, this one stuck with me.
Not because it was surprising—but because it was so familiar. Not only was it close to my home turf, but these kinds of incidents are happening more often, in more places, and to businesses that, from the outside, look like they have everything in place. But as many of us know, it only takes one overlooked vulnerability—an expired certificate, a misconfigured domain, unsecure credentials—for everything to unravel.
As I followed the developments, it wasn’t just the attacks that stood out the most, it was the UK government and media responses: this should be a wake-up call. And they’re right. Not just for the retailers involved, but for all of us trying to balance growth, customer trust, and an ever-changing threat landscape.
Because while we talk a lot about cybersecurity at a strategic level, the everyday elements—such as website protection can get lost. And yet, they’re often where the real risks lie.
The Threat Is Real—and Growing
You don’t need to look far to see how quickly the cyber threat landscape is shifting. Attacks are more frequent, more sophisticated (thanks to AI), and more disruptive than ever—and they’re hitting businesses across every sector. Retail, healthcare, finance, education—no industry is immune.
What we’re seeing is a shift from opportunistic attacks to strategic ones. Bad actors are exploiting overlooked systems, probing for unpatched vulnerabilities, and zeroing in on weak points in digital infrastructure. The unfortunate reality is the business size doesn’t matter. It’s not just the global enterprises being tested. Mid-sized organizations and even small businesses are finding themselves in the crosshairs. Why? They are seen as easier targets to breach or connected to larger supply chains.
It’s Time to Prioritize Cybersecurity
“In a world where the cybercriminals targeting us are relentless in their pursuit of profit - with attempts being made every hour of every day - companies must treat cyber security as an absolute priority. ~ Pat McFadden
At CyberUK 2025, Pat McFadden talked about how companies must treat cybersecurity as an absolute priority. It isn’t just about the immediate fallout. It’s a call to action for businesses everywhere—big and small, across every industry: cybersecurity needs to be a priority, right now.
It is no longer a matter of avoiding fines or keeping regulators happy (although that is important too), it’s about trust. It’s about your customers, your reputation, and ultimately, your bottom line. It’s not a matter of if but when, and how prepared you are when it happens.
The conversation is shifting.
Cybersecurity isn’t just an IT concern—it’s a business issue.
Your Website Security Could Be the Weakest Link
For many businesses, the website is the most visible part of their digital presence. It’s one of the main touchpoints for customers, clients, and partners. It carries your brand, holds critical data, and often functions as the gateway to your services. But it’s also a prime target. They’re public-facing, constantly changing, and often rely on a network of tools, plugins, and third-party integrations. Whilst all of that creates business opportunity, it’s also creating opportunities for the threat actors.
But perhaps one of the most common risks we overlook is expired or mismanaged digital certificates.
It’s easy to underestimate the role digital certificates, they work quietly in the background—securing data, proving authenticity, and keep websites running smoothly. But when something goes wrong, it’s anything but quiet.
An expired or misconfigured certificate can bring your site down, interrupt services, or worse, leave you exposed to spoofing and man-in-the-middle attacks. And in the eyes of your customers—it sends a clear message: We don’t have our security in order.
When was the last time you checked your website’s digital certificates? Or even more importantly, who’s checking them for you? Without proper oversight and management, your website could be leaving doors wide open for attackers.
Managing certificates used to be relatively straightforward. You’d issue one, track the expiry date, and set a reminder. But those days are long gone. With certificate lifespans shrinking to 47 days by 2029 and the number of digital assets growing, manual tracking simply isn’t realistic anymore.
The challenge isn’t just keeping up with certificate validity. It’s knowing where they all are, who owns them, what systems they touch, and what happens when one fails. That kind of visibility doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intention, tooling, and leadership that understands the risk of letting “the small stuff” slip through the cracks.
It might not sound exciting, but digital certificate management is now mission-critical. And it’s one of the fastest ways to strengthen—or undermine—your digital defenses.
It’s Time to Stop, Audit, and Automate
If you’re not sure how many digital certificates your organization has—or who’s managing them—you’re not alone. For many businesses, certificates are scattered across teams, departments, and systems, with little central oversight. And that’s a risk.
The first step is simple, but often overlooked: stop, and take stock. Run a full audit of your certificate landscape. Understand what’s in place, what’s expiring, what’s redundant, and where the gaps are. Without that visibility, it’s impossible to manage certificates proactively—let alone respond quickly if something goes wrong.
From there, automation is key. Automation tools for Certificate Lifecycle Management can streamline the entire certificate management process; they can handle discovery, issue, renew and revoke—which helps prevent service disruptions—and allows your team to proactively address upcoming expirations or potential issues. By reducing the risk of human error, automation enhances the reliability and security of your certificate management. What’s more, it allows your IT staff to focus on more strategic takes, such as improving security protocols, rather than getting bogged down by the sheer volume and weight of manual certificate management.
Automation not only improves efficiency, but also strengthens your overall security posture by ensuring that all certificates are consistently managed and up to date.
View the 9 step checklist for shifting to automation
But this isn’t just an IT housekeeping exercise. It’s about integrating certificate management into your broader cybersecurity and business continuity strategies. That means aligning with your security policies, disaster recovery plans, and compliance obligations.
If digital trust is a foundation of your business—and in today’s landscape, it should be—then how you manage certificates is no longer a back-office detail. It’s part of your core resilience.
With strong certificate management you can ensure that your digital communications are secure, which is fundamental to maintaining trust with customers and partners. By integrating agility and resilience into your certificate management practices, you can better navigate the complexities of the modern threat landscape.
Staying Flexible with SAN Licensing
For growing organizations or those managing a more complex infrastructure, Subject Alternative Name (SAN) Licensing is a smart way to stay agile. In other words, SAN Licensing brings flexibility. And flexibility is exactly what most IT teams need right now: fewer touchpoints, less risk, and more time to focus on the bigger picture.
SAN Licensing allows for one certificate to secure multiple domain names or subdomains (the whole purpose of the model is to provide you with flexibility). Instead of buying separate certificates for each, you can use one certificate with SAN Licensing for all of them.
Here’s how certificate management and SAN Licensing go hand-in-hand:
- What you don’t want: Frequent certificate renewals + changing SAN lists = complex + costly + error-prone.
- How can SAN Licensing provides flexibility: Frequent certificate renewals + static SAN lists + automation = smooth and efficient.
If you’re reassessing your certificate strategy, it’s worth exploring whether SAN Licensing could help you to be more agile in the way you can utilize your certificates.
Talk to us today to see whether SAN Licensing could work for your business
Cybersecurity is for All
Cyber threats aren’t slowing down—and they’re not just hitting the big players. From household-name retailers to mid-sized firms and startups, the message is the same: now is the time to act.
This isn’t about panic. It’s about preparation. It’s about taking a closer look at the quieter parts of your digital infrastructure, such as your website, and making sure they’re not quietly putting you at risk.
Whether it’s running a certificate audit, automating renewals, or switching to more flexible solutions, these steps might not make headlines—but they can be the difference between business as usual and a security incident that stops you in your tracks.
GlobalSign are here to help you unravel your business requirements, and to understand the best solutions suitable for your infrastructure. Get in touch with your local office today.
