Machine identities largely unsecured in HK

A new CyberArk report warns that 92% of Hong Kong organizations fail to secure machine identities despite the increasing dominance of AI and cloud-based systems, exposing them to heightened cybersecurity threats, according to FutureCIO.

The 2025 Identity Security Landscape highlights that machine identities now outnumber human ones by a staggering 82 to 1, yet many firms still define privileged access exclusively around human users, ignoring the fact that half of machine identities also access sensitive systems. Nearly all Hong Kong firms surveyed experienced at least two identity-related breaches in the past year, well above the global average, while 67% lack controls for AI tools and almost half cannot manage shadow AI. "The privileged access of AI agents will represent an entirely new threat vector," said Clarence Hinton, CyberArk's chief strategy officer. With 73% of respondents admitting that business priorities often override security, experts stress the need for stronger governance, especially as identity silos and unmanaged access continue to grow across hybrid infrastructures.