Sectigo unveils first Certificate Authority-focused Web security platform

Out of the gate, Sectigo has two bundles available, with two deeper ones planned for availability in mid-March.

Commercial Certificate Authority Sectigo has announced the Sectigo Web Security Platform, the first effort by a certificate provider to extrapolate their core capability into a broader cloud-based security solution.

Sectigo was formerly known as Comodo CA after they spun out of Comodo in 2017, and rebranded to Sectigo in 2018 to avoid brand confusion.

“Since then, we have continued to bolster the brand, with new technologies and services, additional language support and improving customer and channel support,” said Jonathan Skinner, Sectigo’s Chief Marketing Officer. “Until recently, the SSL space overall hasn’t seen a lot of innovations. We are the first Commercial Certificate Authority to build in a whole complete platform, where SSL is just one piece of that.”

The Sectigo Web Security Platform still has the TLS/SSL certificates at its core. However, it bundles them with other security capabilities in a way that facilitates automated responses which can address issues as well as diagnose them.

“We have brought best of breed technology into a single platform, which we were able to do because we were agile enough to develop that platform,” Skinner said. “Other SSLs have done malware scanning, and identified specific problems,  but didn’t fix those problems. We have engineered the whole thing from scratch to be able to fix the problems.”

The platform bundles TLS/SSL certificates into the solution to let customers automate daily scanning for vulnerabilities, receive proactive notifications, and instantly remove the malware found within the code, database, or files on the web server. The platform also automates daily website backups so that customers can restore their sites when needed with a single click.

“Some of our existing customers have told us that they have been trying to piece these things together from multiple vendors at once, and we will be able to do that for them,” Skinner indicated. “We have also seen a spike in interest from completely new customers, so we think that this will open up new markets for us as well.”

The first two bundles are available now. The goal is to have two additional offerings ready for availability at the CloudFest conference in Germany in mid-March.

Of the two available now, the lightest version in terms of what it does is Sectigo Web Monitor, which is available with all SectigoSSL,PositiveSSL, and InstantSSL certificates. It provides monitoring and detection, but without the automated remediation. Its Sectigo Web Detect automatically scans up to five website pages once daily for critical security issues, providing malware detection, vulnerability detection and spam and blacklist monitoring.

The second bundle planned for availability at Cloudfest is Sectigo Web Remediate, which is available with the all-new SectigoSSL Pro certificates. It includes Enhanced Sectigo Web Detect, which increases scanning by up to 500 website pages and databases. It also includes Sectigo Web Clean, which automatically removes active infections from website files and any MySQL database without disrupting site functionality. In addition, Sectigo Web Patch scans daily to automatically detect critical weaknesses found in the company’s content management system or database and proactively patches these vulnerabilities. Security patches are automatically deployed when new CMS versions are released for 7 of the most popular WordPress plugins: Contact Form 7, Yoast SEO, Jetpack, All-in-one SEO Pack, TinyMCE, Google XML Sitemaps, WordPress Importer, and Easy WP SMTP. Finally, Sectigo Web Backup and Restore reverses damage caused to a website through a one-click restore option.

“In addition, we plan to add Sectigo Web Perform and Sectigo Web Complete at CloudFest in mid-March,” said Laikin Ragsdale, Sectigo’s Channel Marketing Manager. “We will also add two additional certificates.” SSL Premium includes Web Detection, Patching, Web Clean Backup and Restore, and Web Accelerate, while SSL Enterprise will offer all of these plus Web Firewall.

Ragsdale said that the new offerings will give Sectigo’s channel partners a much broader range of products to sell to meet specific customer needs.

“Our global network of SSL specialized partners has always asked us to increase our product offerings,” she stated.