You should make sure to perform regular maintenance on a digital certificate system. Part of your maintenance will include revoking certificates no longer required, such as those that were issued to employees no longer in your service. When you do not revoke certificates, any user with access to the former employee’s computer will be able to use the certificates you had issued.
Issue New Certificates as Part of Digital Certificate System Maintenance
Another reason to perform digital certificate system maintenance is to issue new certificates to replaces ones that will shortly expire or those that have already expired. When a certificate expires it will no longer allow users to use it to perform various functions. For example, if the certificate was used as a digital signature and expires, the user would no longer be able to apply a digital signature to their documents, forms or files.