The technology landscape is evolving. AI-powered solutions are rapidly gaining traction among users and growing increasingly sophisticated. However, while AI offers enormous potential, it can also introduce risk. That’s where identity security and non-human identity (NHI) management come in. The rise of AI and ongoing cloud migration has caused NHIs to proliferate across modern hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Legacy identity security solutions often struggle to keep up because they were designed to secure human identities, which behave differently than NHIs. Dedicated NHI management tools exist, but they focus more on vaulting secrets than identity-centric security approaches and often fail to integrate with critical solutions. “As organizations accelerate into a connected, software-defined future, the governance of non-human identities will be a critical foundation for security, trust, and operational integrity. By proactively addressing NHI governance today, forward-thinking enterprises can reduce risk while enabling faster, more confident innovation — knowing their digital ecosystem is secure and dependable.” – Rajan Behal, Advisory Managing Director, Cyber Security & Technology Risk Services, KPMG LLP This is a significant risk for organizations given the threat that improperly managed NHIs can pose. According to research by Enterprise Strategy Group, 66% of organizations have experienced a successful cyberattack as a result of compromised NHIs. Businesses must also contend with the risk of data loss and secret leakage through employees’ use of AI bots. To combat these and other threats, organizations must unify human identity and NHI management on a single platform to enhance security across the full identity lifecycle.
What are NHIs, and why is it so difficult to secure them?
Securing NHIs effectively starts with protecting three key components: machines, accounts and credentials. Machines include things like cloud workloads, AI bots, cell phones and laptops. Each machine is assigned an account, which represents its unique identity within any given system or application. Account access is then validated using credentials, such as tokens, certificates or API keys. Part of the reason why it’s so difficult to secure NHIs is that anyone can create them. Developers often provision NHIs when deploying new applications, and everyday employees can grant AI bots access to internal company systems and resources. However, identity security teams cannot protect what they don’t know. Risk exposure increases when non-technical employees provision NHIs without proper security or compliance oversight. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of organizations have experienced a security incident due to unknown or unmanaged assets.Additionally, NHIs are highly dynamic. Virtual machines spin up and down and changing business needs lead to apps being added and taken down over time. This makes it incredibly time-consuming and resource-intensive to track NHIs, service accounts and their access. Further complicating matters is the fact that NHIs often rely on static credentials to access systems and applications. These credentials are susceptible to compromise if not rotated, so organizations need a better system to validate NHIs’ access. It takes 292 days on average to remediate breaches involving compromised credentials.
