The Risks of Inadvertent Domain or SSL Expiry

On December 6th of 2018, millions of people in multiple countries found that they were unable to send text messages or make calls on their 4G networks. The telecommunications company Ericsson found that the reason their 4G network went down was because of an SSL certificate expiration. While an SSL expiry can seem innocuous, this particular SSL expiry prevented the network software from working correctly, which temporarily shut down the entire cellular network.

Renewing a domain or an SSL certificate is a routine component of maintaining a company's online presence. The larger an organization, the more domains and SSL certifications they have to maintain. If even one of those lapses, it could have disastrous consequences, depending on the part of the firm’s IT architecture that is affected. Here’s a breakdown of the risks associated with accidental domain and SSL expiration and what companies can do to protect themselves.

What is a Domain or SSL Expiry?

A domain expiration typically happens when someone forgets to renew ownership of a specific website/domain name. A brand domain is a domain name that consists of the name of the company, its brand, a product they sell, or a service they render. Allowing that domain to expire can be embarrassing at a minimum and could create a security and fraud risk to the business.

SSL certificates are equally important to maintain, as is the case with domain names. An SSL allows a website to establish a secure connection with visitors to the site. It encrypts data, makes secure transactions conducted on the site possible, and protects people’s information. If an SSL certificate expires, then a webpage may no longer be secure. This holds true for data transferred between one server or device to another as well, which is a frequent occurrence in large organizations. When an API (application programming interface) is used, or when a backup is created, or when multiple servers are used to balance loads or store data, SSLs help ensure that the data transmitted between these devices is encrypted and protected.

What are the Risks of a Domain or SSL Expiry?

A domain or SSL certificate expiration may seem like a minor issue, but it can have major consequences. In the end, a domain expiry and an SSL expiry would have the same effect on a company: bad customer experience, bad reputation, and potential loss of business.

An expired domain name could make the name available for acquisition by other parties, including the organization’s competitors (if the name is not trademarked). If this domain name involves the name of a company, and if it is registered by miscreants, then the brand name could be hijacked and used to scam or defraud customers of their identities, financial information , and more.

The risk of inadvertent domain expiry is magnified significantly in large organizations. In large corporations, domain expiry risks could arise from:

• employee churn and gaps in transitioning of accountability
• poor domain portfolio management processes
• lack of adherence to domain and SSL administration processes
• use of personal or individual email addresses for registrar account creation
• unhappy or disgruntled former employees or contractors

Moreover, scammers, fraudsters, and domain investors have access to advanced drop-catching tools which monitor domains that ‘drop’ (domain names that are nearing expiry) and can ‘catch’ them (register these domains as soon as they become available to re-register).

Prevent Domain or SSL Expiry

To safeguard against the potential large-scale consequences of an inadvertent domain or SSL certification expiry, companies should ensure that they constantly monitor their domain registrations and SSL certificates. It’s also important to work with a registrar that is committed to making domain and SSL renewal simple and convenient.

Corporate Domain Management platforms offer concierge domain and SSL management services that help corporations and companies offload the stress of monitoring and renewing domain and SSL portfolios. As businesses grow and as their IT architecture increases in complexity, they would do well to get out in front of this threat by counting on corporate domain registrars.