How Automation Is Transforming Email Security
PGP & S/MIME
May 5, 2025
Inside the Echoworx and DigiCert partnership.
The shift to cloud-based solutions has fundamentally reshaped organizational security landscapes. While the cloud offers efficiency and innovation, it also brings increased risks due to its interconnected nature, creating vulnerabilities that attackers actively exploit. This is particularly true in email security, where traditional manual processes for certificate management can no longer keep up. To address these challenges, Echoworx and DigiCert have partnered to modernize email certificate management by automating S/MIME issuance, reducing risk and operational overhead.
Addressing a Growing Security Gap
Traditional approaches to managing email encryption certificates rely heavily on manual workflows, leaving organizations vulnerable to inefficiencies and errors. According to DigiCert’s 2024 State of Digital Trust Report, almost half of companies still manually manage their certificates. This outdated process introduces unnecessary risks, especially as email systems increasingly integrate with other SaaS platforms, creating more potential points of failure.
In the face of escalating threats, automation is no longer optional—it is essential. Automating certificate issuance and management minimizes human error and streamlines operations, enabling organizations to scale their security efforts while maintaining robust protection against phishing, spoofing, and other email-based attacks.
The Echoworx-DigiCert Collaboration: A Practical Solution
Recognizing the need for modernized email security, Echoworx and DigiCert have developed an integrated solution to automate S/MIME certificate management. By embedding DigiCert’s API into Echoworx’s cloud-based encryption platform, the partnership eliminates manual steps in the certificate lifecycle. This approach ensures that organizations can seamlessly issue, renew, and manage certificates in real-time, even for users without pre-existing private keys.
This automation not only reduces administrative burden but also addresses critical challenges like onboarding and offboarding employees—a frequent pain point for IT teams. The result is stronger, more consistent email encryption practices that align with the demands of modern business workflows.
Echoworx’s integration and mail flow with DigiCert.
A Real-World Example: Automation in Action
A private banking firm offers a compelling example of the benefits of automating email security. Operating in a highly regulated industry, the firm faced significant inefficiencies in its manual S/MIME certificate management process, which struggled to keep pace with increasing security demands. Additionally, the firm needed an external public key infrastructure (PKI) solution that adhered to strict standards, a requirement that added complexity to the process.
By adopting the Echoworx-DigiCert solution, the firm automated its certificate issuance and management. This shift allowed them to instantly issue credentials, streamline operations, and significantly reduce the workload on their IT team. Most importantly, the automation reinforced email security at scale, ensuring that every communication met the highest standards of confidentiality and integrity.
The Broader Implications of Security Automation
The challenges faced by this private banking firm are not unique. Traditional security architectures, with distinct layers of segmentation and control, are being eroded by the need for seamless connectivity across complex communication processes and technology stacks. This shift requires organizations to adopt advanced security measures that can operate effectively in this interconnected landscape.
Automating processes like certificate management not only mitigates risks but also supports broader efforts to modernize security architecture. By reducing reliance on manual workflows, organizations can focus on implementing stronger authorization protocols, proactive detection capabilities, and other measures necessary to secure interconnected systems.
Moving Forward: Security by Design
The partnership between Echoworx and DigiCert underscores the critical need to prioritize security in today’s cloud-driven world. As cyber threats grow more sophisticated and integration models become increasingly complex, organizations must demand solutions that embed security as a core foundation, not an afterthought. Automation, combined with strong encryption practices, offers a scalable way forward, helping businesses protect sensitive communications while managing the challenges of modern cloud ecosystems.
In an era where secure communication is essential, this collaboration reinforces the importance of building security into every layer of technology. By leveraging automated, scalable solutions, organizations can strengthen their defenses and ensure resilience against an ever-changing threat landscape.