Support Compliance Frameworks and Secure IoT Devices with PKI and Digital Certificates

Why IoT Security Needs More Than Just Firewalls

As IoT devices become essential to modern infrastructure — from connected medical devices and building controls to smart manufacturing equipment — securing them is no longer optional. Weak or broken access controls now rank among the top security risks in the OWASP Top 10:2025, making IoT endpoints a prime target for attackers.

This blog explains how Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and digital certificates — especially those from publicly trusted Certificate Authorities (CAs) like IdenTrust — assist you:

• Strengthen device identity and authentication
• Protect data in transit across networks
• Implement effective compensating controls within frameworks such as the NIST Risk Management Framework
• Manage certificates at scale across thousands of IoT and mobile devices

Why you should keep reading:
If you’re responsible for device fleets — whether you’re a revenue leader in healthcare, a CISO at a large enterprise or an IT/security leader in a regulated industry — this article offers a practical roadmap for using PKI to lower IoT risks while supporting compliance and operational efficiency.

The 411: What Is the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF)?

The NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) is widely adopted by U.S. federal agencies and federal contractors, and increasingly by private organizations seeking a structured, repeatable method to assess and manage cyber risk.

RMF is defined in NIST SP 80037 Rev. 2 and outlines a seven-step process that integrates security, privacy and cyber supply chain risk management into the system development life cycle.

Under NIST RMF, organizations:

1. Categorize their systems and assets
2. Select appropriate security controls
3. Implement those controls
4. Assess control effectiveness
5. Authorize the system for use
6. Monitor continuously for changes in risk
7. Respond by adjusting controls as threats evolve

IoT devices — such as security cameras, building management systems, or HVAC controls — frequently appear in this process as network-connected assets that could be vulnerable to attacks. Poorly configured or unauthenticated IoT endpoints can be targeted due to broken access control, which OWASP identifies as the top risk to applications in its Top 10 for 2025.

How IoT Devices Become a Risk in RMF Terms

From an RMF perspective, organizations evaluate IoT devices based on:

• Where they are positioned in the network (internal versus external facing)
• What types of data they manage (regulated data, operational data, telemetry)
• Which controls are already in place (network segmentation, authentication, encryption)

If the likelihood and impact of an attack on these devices are high — such as when a compromised IoT device could give an attacker access to critical systems — the organization might choose to implement compensating controls to lower the risk to an acceptable level.

That’s where PKI and digital certificates can play a powerful role.

Using PKI as a Compensating Control for Broken Access Control

Compensating controls are additional safeguards implemented when existing controls are insufficient or impractical. For IoT devices, compensating controls often aim to:

• Strengthen access control
• Ensure confidentiality and integrity of data in transit
• Improve device identity assurance

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) provides a strong foundation for all three:

• Device identity — Each IoT device is issued a unique digital certificate that acts as its cryptographic identity
• Mutual authentication — Devices and backend services can authenticate each other with certificates, lowering the risk of unauthorized access
• Encryption — Data transmitted between devices and systems is encrypted, safeguarding it from interception or tampering

Managed PKI and certificate-based authentication directly support controls aligned with NIST RMF and NIST IoT guidance by:

• Reducing the risk associated with broken access control
• Limiting the ability of attackers to impersonate trusted devices
• Increasing visibility into which devices are trusted and active in your environment

When integrated into a formal RMF strategy, PKI can serve as a strong compensating control, reducing both the probability and the severity of successful attacks against IoT devices.

Leveraging PKIaaS in Your Cybersecurity Strategy

HID offers a cloud based, managed PKI-as-a-Service (PKIaaas) solution designed to help organizations:

• Align with NIST standards and industry best practices
• Protect against today’s threats
• Stay agile as cryptographic standards and attack methods evolve

Key benefits include:

• Automation — Automated discovery, certificate enrollment, renewal and revocation ensure device identities stay continuously up to date with minimal manual intervention. This reduces human error, accelerates onboarding and strengthens overall security posture.
• Single pane of glass — A unified console to discover, view and manage digital certificates across your environment. Administrators can quickly identify trusted devices, certificates nearing expiration and areas requiring action.
• Scalability with agility— PKIaaS scales with your organization, supporting everything from hundreds to tens of thousands of certificates without needing you to build and maintain on-premises infrastructure
• Flexible hierarchy and profiles — Customizable certificate hierarchies and profiles enable you to tailor PKI policies for various device types, business units or regulatory requirements

For organizations managing large IoT and mobile fleets, PKIaaS streamlines the entire certificate life cycle — from enrollment and renewal to revocation and replacement — while ensuring a high level of security.

Why a Publicly Trusted Certificate Authority Matters

When securing IoT devices, the type of Certificate Authority (CA) you use depends heavily on where and how those devices operate.

• Internal only IoT devices (e.g., building sensors on a segmented corporate network may be suitable for certificates issued from an internal, private CA that your organization operates
• Public-facing devices and services (e.g., cloud APIs, web portals, or externally accessible management interfaces typically require certificates from a publicly trusted CA to ensure browsers, operating systems and applications recognize them as secure

This is where a CA such as IdenTrust becomes critical.

A publicly trusted CA:

• Issues certificates that adhere to strict profile standards
• Is operated in accordance with CA/Browser Forum Baseline Requirements
• Undergoes independent audits and global community vetting
• Has root certificates embedded in major browsers and operating systems

As a result, certificates issued from publicly trusted roots provide:

• Higher confidence for external users and systems
• Fewer “untrusted certificate” warnings
• Better interoperability across platforms and devices

OV vs. EV: Levels of Assurance for TLS/SSL Certificates

Publicly trusted CAs such as IdenTrust offer different assurance levels for TLS/SSL certificates:

Organization Validation (OV)

• Verifies domain ownership
• Confirms the existence of the organization
• Provides a high level of assurance for server certificates
• Is natively trusted by major browsers and operating systems

With OV certificates from a publicly trusted CA, visitors to your site or API do not see security warnings, and encrypted connections are established seamlessly.

Extended Validation (EV)

• Builds on OV checks with additional validation of: 
  • Organization identity
  • Operational presence
  • Legal and physical existence
• Offers the highest level of assurance for server identity

EV TLS/SSL certificates significantly help prevent attackers from impersonating your infrastructure, reducing the risk of unauthorized devices or rogue servers accessing sensitive data or privileged networks. For NIST RMF compensating controls, higher assurance levels like OV and EV are key to demonstrating that your controls are both effective and suitable for the risk level.

Managing Device Trust in Dynamic Environments

Modern organizations are ever-changing. Teams grow, reorganize and enter new markets. Devices are swiftly added, replaced or repurposed. In this setting, maintaining trust at scale remains an ongoing challenge.

PKI and digital certificates help by:

• Providing a consistent, cryptographic method to identify and authenticate devices
• Enabling streamlined but secure access for trusted users and systems
• Supporting automated workflows for onboarding and retiring devices

Many organizations use Mobile Device Management (MDM) or Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) platforms in conjunction with PKI to:

• Enroll devices with certificates
• Enforce access policies based on certificate status
• Automate certificate renewal and revocation

In practice, effective PKI management involves:

• Discovery — Identifying all certificates and where they’re deployed
• Issuance — Generating and installing certificates on devices
• Monitoring — Tracking expiry dates, usage and anomalies
• Revocation/retirement — Quickly revoking or retiring certificates when devices are lost, decommissioned or compromised

These responsibilities are often assigned to dedicated roles or shared among security, IT operations and compliance teams.

Role Separation and the Value of Trusted Certificate Generation

Dividing responsibilities between those who create certificates and those who manage them is a common and effective logical control.

IdenTrust can:

• Provide trusted, policy-aligned digital certificates at scale
• Enable organizations to self-administer certificate deployment and life cycle tasks
• Support financially efficient models where certificates are generated on demand rather than maintaining a complex private CA infrastructure in-house

This model is especially valuable when securing:

• BYOD and corporate mobile devices
• Workstations in clinics or healthcare facilities
• Email servers that handle privileged, sensitive or regulated communications

By using IdenTrust certificates within your broader PKI strategy, you can lower administrative overhead while keeping strong, auditable trust across devices and users.

Staying Ahead as IoT and Cryptography Evolve

As the IoT landscape matures, certificate policies, cryptographic algorithms and regulatory expectations will continue to evolve. Organizations require security architectures that are:

• Adaptable — Able to adopt stronger algorithms and new certificate profiles
• Observable — Providing clear telemetry and reporting for audits and compliance
• Efficient — Allowing teams to focus on core business objectives rather than manual certificate management

Strategically delegating PKI workloads between in-house specialists and trusted vendors like HID and IdenTrust helps organizations:

• Improve security outcomes
• Maintain compliance with frameworks like NIST RMF
• Free up resources to drive innovation and revenue growth

Key Takeaways

• IoT devices introduce real, measurable risk — especially around broken access control, highlighted as the #1 risk in OWASP Top 10:2025.
• NIST RMF provides a structured way to assess and manage those risks, often requiring compensating controls for exposed assets.
• PKI and digital certificates are foundational compensating controls that: 
  • Authenticate devices
  • Encrypt data in transit
  • Improve visibility and trust at scale
• HID PKIaaS simplifies certificate life cycle management, while IdenTrust, as a publicly trusted CA, delivers high-assurance certificates (OV and EV) suitable for public-facing and regulated environments
• Organizations that integrate managed PKI, publicly trusted certificates and robust device management practices are better equipped to secure IoT ecosystems and meet current compliance requirements

Ready to enhance your IoT security with trusted PKI solutions? Find out how HID and IdenTrust can assist you in deploying scalable, high-assurance certificate management across your organization’s devices and infrastructure. Contact us to explore how PKIaaS and IdenTrust certificates can support your NIST RMF strategy and secure your IoT environment.