Symantec-issued certificates do not need to be reissued now, during the busy holiday season, but will need to be reissued starting in 2018.

DigiCert has met the December 1 deadline of integrating with Symantec systems, and all validation and issuance of TLS certificates is being handled by DigiCert’s backend. Initial results appear generally positive, with the validation staff processing orders and delivering certificates. For their convenience, Symantec customers are able to request certificates using their existing Symantec front-end ordering systems. As expected with any migration of this scale, we are working directly with customers in the rare instances that require additional customer support.

We anticipate that most of the immediate certificates validated and issued will be new orders. The browsers have given Symantec customers until the spring of 2018 to replace existing certificates issued prior to June 1, 2016, before they become distrusted. This includes certificates issued by Symantec, GeoTrust, Thawte, and RapidSSL.

Since many organizations impose a holiday lockdown to avoid interruptions to their systems during the busy shopping season—and Symantec-issued certificates remain trusted through spring 2018—most companies will choose to replace affected certificates after the New Year. This is perfectly acceptable and DigiCert is prepared to assist with the process whenever companies are ready to transition certificates.  Please note that this December 1 deadline does not mandate any immediate certificate changes for existing Symantec-issued certificates, but simply transfers validation and issuance of new Symantec certificates to DigiCert systems.

Before DigiCert’s acquisition of Symantec’s Website Security business, Symantec chose DigiCert as the validation and certificate issuance provider. Since being chosen, both engineering teams have worked diligently to integrate the systems. We are working with Symantec customers to provide a smooth transition and meet the standard of excellence DigiCert customers expect.

Our team is actively validating and issuing certificates. We understand some instances have required additional support. Some customers are seeing delays in validation because of the large number of validation requests that flowed into the system on day 1. We are working through all identified issues and escalations as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience to these customers and are working diligently to resolve their concerns.

If you have questions/concerns or want immediate assistance with your Symantec-issued certificates, please contact our Support team by emailing support@digicert.com. Although I won’t be able to reply to all inquiries as quickly as Support, I’d also love to hear everyone’s feedback. Feel free to email me directly at jeremy.rowley@digicert.com.

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