An infrastructure is provided for managing the distribution of digital certificates for network security in wireless backhaul networks. In embodiments, a root certificate management system (root CMS) processes requests for digital certificates, issues root certificates, automatically authenticates surrogate certificate management systems (sur-CMSs), and automatically processes certificate requests and issues certificate bundles to sur-CMSs that are successfully authenticated. The infrastructure includes sur-CMSs to which are assigned base stations within respective regions. Each sur-CMS automatically authenticates its own base stations and automatically processes certificate requests and issues certificate bundles to base stations that are successfully authenticated. A certificate bundle issued to a base station includes a digital certificate, signed by the issuing sur-CMS, of a public key of such base station, and at least one further digital certificate, including a self-signed certificate of the root CMS.