Sectigo has secured a record five chair positions in the CA/Browser Forum leadership, demonstrating its growing influence in digital certificate standards. Tim Callan, Sectigo's chief compliance officer, has been elected as the new vice chair, effective December 1, 2024.

The new Sectigo leadership positions include:

• Tim Callan: CA/B Forum Vice Chair and Vice Chair of Definitions and Glossary Working Group
• Martijn Katerbarg: Chairman of Code Signing Working Group and Vice Chair of S/MIME Working Group
• Brian Holland: Co-Chair of Intellectual Property Rights Subcommittee

As a founding member of the CA/B Forum, Tim Callan played a crucial role in developing Extended Validation SSL in the late 2000s. The Forum, established in 2005, sets standards for certificate validation, authentication, and revocation while addressing challenges in digital certificate security.

Key updates in WebPKI include:

• Reduction of SSL certificate lifespans to 45-day maximum term
• Modernization of domain control validation
• Implementation of post-quantum cryptography (PQC)
• Reform of revocation rules for misissuance

The shortened certificate lifespans bring several benefits:

• Reduced risk from cybercriminals exploiting outdated certificates
• Minimized exposure time for compromised certificates
• Improved crypto agility
• Reduced gaps between domain control and certificate ownership

The CA/B Forum unites certificate authorities, browser vendors (Apple, Google, Mozilla, Microsoft), and major technology companies to establish guidelines for public TLS, Code Signing, and S/MIME certificates. These guidelines are regularly updated to address emerging threats, incorporate new technology, and improve process reliability.

Sectigo, with over 700,000 customers and two decades of experience, continues to lead in certificate lifecycle management (CLM) through its automated, cloud-native platform that manages digital certificates across all certificate authorities.

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