A look at TLS and Internet security in early 2026

Monday, January 5, 2026

At the start of 2026, TLS (often still called “SSL”) – is essentially the default for web traffic. Encryption is now expected for websites: in the U.S., about 98% of all internet traffic is sent over HTTPS, and globally around 88–95% of web traffic is encrypted.

This ubiquity of TLS has greatly improved confidentiality and integrity online, but it hasn’t made security a solved problem. The TLS ecosystem is actively evolving to address new challenges. This short report highlights key developments and practical insights for IT professionals managing TLS certificates and infrastructure.

Widespread TLS 1.3 adoption (and TLS 1.4 on the horizon)

TLS 1.3, introduced in 2018, has become the standard in recent years. By mid-2025, about 70% of surveyed websites supported TLS 1.3, and virtually all modern browsers and servers prefer it.

TLS 1.3 dropped outdated cryptographic algorithms and features a faster handshake, improving both security and performance. Many organizations have disabled legacy protocols (TLS 1.0/1.1) entirely – for example, major cloud platforms like Azure ended support for TLS 1.0/1.1 in 2024, mandating TLS 1.2+ for connections. TLS 1.2 remains acceptable (and still carries a large portion of traffic), but using TLS 1.3 is now a best practice for better security and speed. Admins should ensure older protocols and weak ciphers are turned off to prevent downgrade attacks or weak encryption.

Looking forward, TLS 1.4 is already in the works (as an IETF draft) to address emerging needs. Its design goals include building in post-quantum cryptography, improving 0-RTT handshake security, and enabling connection mobility for devices that roam between networks.

For example, TLS 1.4 drafts propose a “connection ID” to allow sessions to continue smoothly if a client’s IP changes – a feature inspired by QUIC for mobile use cases. There’s also a focus on stronger replay protections for 0-RTT data and native support for hybrid post-quantum key exchanges. While TLS 1.4 isn’t finalized or deployed as of early 2026, it signals where protocol evolution is heading.

In the meantime, Encrypted Client Hello (ECH), an extension to hide the TLS SNI (Server Name Indication), is being rolled out with TLS 1.3 to enhance privacy by encrypting the domain name in the handshake. IT teams should watch these developments – within a couple of years, we may see browsers and servers start adding TLS 1.4 support to stay ahead of threats.

Post-Quantum cryptography readiness

A major driver of change in TLS is the looming threat of quantum computers. Security experts warn that within the next decade or so, a sufficiently advanced quantum computer could break current RSA or ECC encryption, jeopardizing TLS sessions encrypted with those algorithms.

Even though today’s quantum machines cannot yet do this, attackers might “harvest now, decrypt later” – recording encrypted traffic today in hopes of decrypting it in the future once they have quantum capabilities. To counter this, the industry is moving fast toward post-quantum cryptography (PQC).

In 2022–2024, NIST selected new quantum-resistant algorithms (like CRYSTALS-Kyber for key exchange and Dilithium for signatures) and published standards. By 2025, browsers and TLS libraries started integrating these. In fact, as of late 2025, Cloudflare reported a major milestone: over 50% of its HTTPS traffic was negotiated with a post-quantum key exchange (in a hybrid mode alongside classical ECC).

Major cloud providers, CDNs, and browser vendors have been testing hybrid key exchanges (e.g. combining X25519 + Kyber) to ensure that even if quantum decryption becomes feasible in the future, those recorded handshakes won’t be breakable. This represents a broad adoption of post-quantum encryption in practice, albeit mostly invisible to end users.

For certificate infrastructure, some Certificate Authorities (CAs) have begun offering experimental hybrid certificates that include both a classical RSA/ECDSA signature and a PQC signature. Full post-quantum TLS certificates (using, say, Dilithium for signing) are not yet trusted by browsers, but 2025 saw many organizations begin piloting quantum-safe VPNs and internal TLS using PQC. The U.S. government and EU are also pushing post-quantum readiness – e.g. new guidelines require agencies and critical infrastructure to inventory their cryptographic use and be ready to switch to PQC within the coming years.

You don’t need to swap out your RSA certificates just yet, but stay up to date on software updates (OpenSSL, browsers, etc.) that add PQC support. Enable hybrid key exchanges if your server and clients support them. This will future-proof your TLS traffic against “decrypt later” attacks. Also, use sufficiently strong keys today – e.g. at least RSA-2048 or ECDSA P-256 – so that your encryption resists classical attacks in the interim.

Shorter certificate lifetimes and automation

One of the biggest changes affecting certificate management is the ongoing reduction of publicly-trusted certificate lifespans. Currently (Q1 2026), the maximum validity for a TLS certificate is about 13 months (398 days). However, the CA/Browser Forum has approved a policy to gradually shrink certificate lifespans to just 47 days by 2029. The first step of this transition kicks in March 15, 2026, when new certificates can be at most 200 days (~6½ months) long.

In 2027 the max will drop to 100 days, and by March 2029 it becomes 47 days (about 1½ months). Along with this, CAs will have to do domain ownership re-validation more frequently (data reuse windows dropping from 398 days to just 10 days by 2029).

The rationale is to improve security: shorter-lived certs narrow the window of risk from a compromised key or mis-issued certificate. If an attacker steals your private key, a certificate that expires in a month limits how long they can abuse it, whereas a 1-year cert gives them a long window. Short certs also force organizations to automate renewal, which reduces the chance of forgotten, expired certs causing outages.

Automation is no longer optional – it’s a necessity. Administrators should be using ACME or similar protocols to handle certificate issuance and renewal. Free services like Let’s Encrypt pioneered the 90-day certificate model specifically to encourage automation, and this has been hugely successful.

Today, Let’s Encrypt (via automated ACME issuance) accounts for over 60% of all TLS certificates in use. In fact, 94%+ of all certificates are now Domain-Validated (DV) and often issued instantly by automated processes. Commercial CAs and enterprise PKI solutions have also embraced automation: many now support ACME interfaces or provide APIs for certificate management.

Finally, shorter lifetimes mean you should monitor your certificate deployments closely. It’s easier to miss a renewal when it comes every 3 months instead of every 12. Integrate certificate expiration checks into your monitoring/alerting systems.

Many organizations tie these checks into CI/CD pipelines or use enterprise certificate management services to get notifications well before a cert expires. The good news is that automation, once in place, makes rapid rotations seamless – some cutting-edge teams even rotate certificates monthly or faster as a routine security practice.

Best practices and ideas for 2026

TLS and internet security in 2026 is a story of both refinement and new frontiers. Encryption is everywhere, yet the work of keeping it trustworthy and robust continues. For professionals managing TLS infrastructure, a few key takeaways:

  • Keep your configurations updated: use TLS 1.3 wherever possible, disable old protocols, and upgrade cipher suites to recommended modern ones. Enable features like HSTS (Strict Transport Security) to prevent downgrade attacks and ensure all traffic stays encrypted.

  • Embrace automation: with certificate lifetimes shrinking to 6 months or less, you should automate issuance and renewals (ACME is now a standard tool for this). This not only prevents downtime due to expired certs but also improves security by allowing frequent key rotations.

  • Stay ahead of quantum threats: begin testing post-quantum cryptography in your environments. Ensure your vendors and libraries are adding support. Even if you don’t flip the switch to a PQ algorithm yet, be ready – the crypto landscape could shift within the decade, and early adoption of hybrid approaches can only strengthen your security posture.

  • Be prepared for change: policy and regulatory shifts are ongoing. Besides the CA/B Forum lifespan reductions, we may see new rules (for example, standards around Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) DNS records to control who can issue for your domain). Keep an eye on browser announcements and CA/B Forum decisions – these often give a timeline for when you need to adjust your practices.

  • Don’t neglect fundamentals: about 34% of websites still have suboptimal SSL configurations (e.g. missing intermediate certs or allowing weak ciphers). So while you plan for advanced threats, make sure you’re doing the basics right: correct certificate chains, secure private key storage, strong client certificate validation where applicable, and so on.

Overall, the world of TLS in 2026 is more automated, more transparent, and gearing up for bigger changes (like post-quantum crypto). For those running websites or services, it’s an exciting time – security is getting stronger, but it requires staying informed and agile.

Sources

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