What keeps the digital world running safely behind the scenes, and why are so many organizations only now discovering that one of their most important security foundations is becoming increasingly difficult to manage?

In this episode, I sit down with Lakshmi Hanspal, Chief Trust Officer at DigiCert, to demystify Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and explain why it quietly powers almost every secure digital interaction we rely on each day. From online banking and cloud services to connected devices, APIs and AI systems, PKI is the technology that verifies identities, protects communications and helps ensure the information we exchange can be trusted.

Our conversation is inspired by DigiCert's latest PKI Modernization research, which surveyed senior IT and security leaders to understand how organisations are managing digital trust in an increasingly connected world. The findings reveal a growing gap between awareness and execution. While most leaders recognize the importance of digital trust, only 34% report having full visibility into their digital certificates, leaving many vulnerable to outages, operational disruptions, and unnecessary risk.

Lakshmi explains why certificate management has become so fragmented over the years, how machine identities now outnumber human identities by a significant margin, and why AI is adding another layer of complexity as autonomous systems communicate at unprecedented scale. We discuss why spreadsheets and disconnected management tools are no longer sufficient, and why many organizations are moving towards centralized PKI management with greater automation and policy enforcement.

We also look ahead to two challenges that are rapidly moving up the boardroom agenda. The first is establishing trust in AI-generated content through stronger verification, digital signatures, and cryptographic provenance. The second is preparing for a future in which quantum computing could eventually undermine today's encryption standards, making cryptographic agility an important business capability rather than simply a technical consideration.

If you've ever wondered what lies behind the secure websites, applications, and digital services you use every day, this conversation offers a practical introduction to one of the internet's most important foundations while explaining why modernizing digital trust has become a business priority rather than simply an IT project.

How prepared is your organization for the next generation of digital trust? I'd love to hear your thoughts and whether PKI modernization is already part of your security strategy.