Non-Human Identities (NHIs) have become one of the most critical attack vectors within enterprise environments. Todd Thiemann, Senior Analyst at ESG, notes that “Non-human identities represent one of the most significant attack surfaces within today’s enterprises.” As organizations increasingly adopt digital transformation and cloud-first strategies, managing and securing these identities is crucial. Lapses in security controls can lead to expensive data breaches, operational disruptions, and compliance issues, underscoring the importance of the insights from the recent AppViewX report for IT leaders dealing with these challenges. “Without proper management and security controls, NHIs can lead to costly data breaches, operational disruptions, and compliance failures.”

Understanding the Role of Non-Human Identities in Modern IT Frameworks

In modern IT frameworks, non-human identities (NHIs) such as application IDs, service accounts, and API cloud keys, among other things, vastly outnumber human users. Organizations now manage 20 times more non-human identities than human ones, with more than 50% expecting this number to increase by over 20% in the next year. Despite their prevalence, visibility into these identities is alarmingly low. Osterman Research revealed that only 5.7% of organizations have full visibility into their service accounts. This lack of visibility complicates the task of managing and securing NHIs, further amplifying the risk they pose.

NHIs are integral to various automated processes and systems, making their proper management crucial. These identities operate silently in the background, facilitating everything from inter-application communication to data transactions. As organizations adopt more cloud services, microservices architectures, and AI-driven processes, the population of NHIs grows exponentially. This surge, combined with inadequate visibility, creates fertile ground for potential security breaches. Hackers increasingly target these often-overlooked identities to gain unauthorized access and disrupt operations.

A common challenge is that NHIs often operate with elevated privileges, making them attractive targets for attackers. If compromised, they can provide an entry point to critical systems and sensitive data. Therefore, it’s essential for enterprises to prioritize NHI management and security. Robust identity and access management (IAM) solutions, coupled with continuous monitoring and automated certificate lifecycle management (CLM), can significantly mitigate these risks.

Understanding the multifaceted role of NHIs in modern IT environments highlights the urgency of implementing stringent security measures. As the digital landscape evolves, so too must the strategies to protect these vital yet vulnerable components of enterprise IT infrastructure. 

Assessing the Risks Associated with Unmanaged Non-Human Identities

The risks associated with unmanaged NHIs are significant and cannot be underestimated. Alarmingly, nearly 46% of organizations have experienced breaches related to non-human identities, with the average enterprise suffering 2.7 incidents in the past year. Moreover, 66 percent of enterprises have experienced a successful cyberattack resulting from compromised non-human identities. These statistics underscore the urgent need for enterprises to prioritize the management and security of NHIs to mitigate potential threats and vulnerabilities.

Unmanaged NHIs, often operating with elevated privileges, present an attractive target for cybercriminals. Once compromised, these identities can provide unauthorized access to critical systems and sensitive data, making them a significant vector for potential attacks. The operational complexity of modern cloud environments exacerbates this issue, as it makes manual management of NHIs not only impractical but also highly ineffective.

Compounding the challenge is the inadequate visibility into these identities, which hampers effective oversight and incident response. The lack of robust security controls around NHIs can lead to devastating breaches, resulting in financial losses, reputational damage, and non-compliance with regulatory standards.

Given the increasing sophistication of cyber threats, enterprises must adopt comprehensive strategies to secure NHIs. Automated solutions for identity management and continuous monitoring can offer significant advantages, providing real-time insights and rapid responses to potential security incidents. Integrating advanced threat detection and automated remediation into the cybersecurity framework ensures that NHIs are effectively managed and secured, thereby minimizing the risks they pose to the enterprise.

Failure to address these vulnerabilities proactively could lead to substantial and far-reaching consequences, emphasizing the critical importance of robust NHI management and security in today’s digital landscape.

The Importance of Automated Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM)

Automated Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) is critical for mitigating the risks associated with Non-Human Identities (NHIs). As enterprises increasingly recognize the importance of safeguarding their digital ecosystems, over 80% of organizations expect to increase spending on non-human identity security, with a focus on identity threat detection, certificate lifecycle management, and workload access control.

Implementing CLM provides a streamlined approach to managing digital certificates, which are essential for establishing trust and ensuring secure communications between NHIs. Automated CLM solutions simplify the issuance, renewal, and revocation of certificates, reducing the risk of human error and minimizing operational disruptions. This automation ensures that certificates are always up-to-date and compliant with security policies, which is vital for maintaining the integrity of communications within complex IT environments.

Moreover, automated CLM enables real-time monitoring and alerting, allowing organizations to quickly identify and address potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. By integrating CLM with existing security infrastructures, enterprises can enhance their overall threat detection capabilities and ensure a robust defense against cyber threats targeting NHIs.

As the digital landscape evolves, the adoption of automated CLM becomes indispensable for managing the growing volume and complexity of NHIs. Enterprises that invest in these solutions position themselves to better navigate the challenges of modern cybersecurity, ensuring that their digital identities remain secure and resilient against emerging threats.

Best Practices for Securing Non-Human Identities in Enterprise-Level Organizations

Securing NHIs effectively requires a strategic approach that includes visibility, management, and automation. One key challenge is the poor visibility into non-human identity environments, with many organizations lacking confidence in their ability to secure and manage these identities effectively. To address these concerns, organizations should implement comprehensive identity and access management solutions that offer robust visibility and control. This includes employing automated systems for monitoring and managing NHIs, leveraging AI-driven insights for anomaly detection, and ensuring that security policies are consistently enforced across all digital identities.

Organizations must also adopt a zero-trust approach, which assumes that threats can originate from both inside and outside the network. This involves continuously verifying the identity and access rights of NHIs and restricting their permissions to the minimum necessary for their functions. By adopting this principle, enterprises can minimize the attack surface and limit the potential impact of compromised identities.

Integrating advanced threat detection tools with existing security frameworks can provide real-time alerts and responses to suspicious activities related to NHIs. Regular audits and compliance checks are equally important to ensure that security protocols are up-to-date and effective. By fostering a culture of proactive security and leveraging cutting-edge technologies, organizations can safeguard their digital ecosystems and mitigate the risks posed by unmanaged non-human identities.

Leveraging PKI Solutions for Enhanced Cybersecurity

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) solutions are pivotal for ensuring robust cybersecurity in enterprise environments, particularly for Non-Human Identities (NHIs). PKI establishes a framework for encrypting communications, authenticating digital identities, and ensuring the integrity of data transactions. With the exponential growth of NHIs driven by cloud adoption and digital transformation initiatives, leveraging PKI has never been more critical.

By deploying PKI solutions, enterprises can authenticate the identity of applications, services, and devices, thereby preventing unauthorized entities from accessing sensitive information. PKI achieves this through the use of digital certificates, which verify the authenticity of non-human actors in a secure and scalable manner. This authentication process is essential for maintaining trust within the digital ecosystem, especially as NHIs facilitate increasingly complex interactions.

In addition to authentication, PKI ensures data integrity by encrypting information exchanged between NHIs. This encryption safeguards data from interception and tampering, providing a secure channel for communication. Implementing PKI also enables enterprises to enforce compliance with security policies, as digital certificates can be configured to meet stringent regulatory requirements.

The automation capabilities of modern PKI solutions further enhance security by streamlining certificate management. Automated certificate lifecycle management (CLM) minimizes human error, ensures timely renewal and revocation of certificates, and offers real-time monitoring and alerts. By integrating PKI with existing cybersecurity infrastructures, enterprises can bolster their defenses and reduce the risks associated with unmanaged NHIs.

Future-Proofing Your Cybersecurity Strategy for Non-Human Identities

Enterprises must proactively evolve their cybersecurity strategies to manage the growing volume of NHIs effectively. This forward-thinking approach involves anticipating emerging threats and addressing current vulnerabilities, ensuring a resilient security posture. Notably, 57 percent of the episodes where organizations suffered a successful attack tied to non-human identity compromises got Board of Directors attention. Elevating NHI security to a strategic level is crucial, requiring executive leadership to allocate the necessary focus and resources. By fostering a culture of security awareness and integrating advanced technologies, enterprises can strengthen their defenses against evolving cyber threats. This includes leveraging AI-driven insights, adopting zero-trust principles, and ensuring continuous monitoring and automated management of NHIs. These measures are vital for maintaining robust security and compliance in an increasingly complex digital landscape. Investing in innovative cybersecurity solutions not only addresses current risks but also positions organizations to effectively counter future challenges, ensuring the long-term security and integrity of their digital ecosystems.

Conclusion

The rise of Non-Human Identities (NHIs) as a significant attack vector highlights the urgent need for enterprises to prioritize their security. The exponential growth of NHIs, coupled with inadequate visibility and management, creates vulnerabilities that cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting. Organizations must act now by adopting automated solutions such as identity and access management (IAM) and certificate lifecycle management (CLM) to effectively manage and secure NHIs.

By implementing comprehensive security strategies—incorporating real-time monitoring, threat detection, and zero-trust principles—enterprises can mitigate the risks posed by unmanaged NHIs. The insights from the AppViewX report further reinforce the critical importance of proactive NHI management to prevent data breaches, operational disruptions, and compliance failures. Ultimately, investing in advanced security technologies not only strengthens current defenses but also future-proofs organizations against the evolving cybersecurity landscape.