As non-human identities outnumber humans 45 to 1, enterprises face escalating security risks from unmonitored APIs, bots, and service accounts.
Machine identities now outnumber humans in the digital world, but these silent gatekeepers are leaving enterprises dangerously exposed. APIs, bots, and service accounts power today’s automation, yet they often go unnoticed, mismanaged, and unprotected—providing attackers with easy entry points.
As businesses embrace advanced technologies, the hidden vulnerabilities in non-human identities (NHIs) are quickly becoming one of the biggest security risks in modern enterprises.
The Growth of Non-Human Identities
Non-human identities are integral to modern enterprise operations. APIs facilitate seamless communication between applications, RPAs streamline repetitive tasks, and IoT devices power everything from logistics to healthcare operations. However, as these technologies proliferate, so do the risks they introduce. According to Mitch Greenfield, an associate vice president of identity and access management (IAM) at Humana, "The complexity grows as you manage thousands of applications and more than 100,000 entities. Without proper integration and governance, the risks multiply".
Organizations often neglect the management of NHIs, leaving many dormant or unmonitored. Insecure secrets, such as API keys stored in plaintext, further exacerbate the issue. Parham Eftekhari of CyberRisk Alliance notes that mismanagement and lack of visibility into these identities result in vulnerabilities that attackers can easily exploit.
The Hidden Risks: Dormant Accounts, Elevated Privileges, and Mismanagement
Dormant and orphaned NHIs—those no longer actively used but still connected to critical systems—are a cybersecurity blind spot. These accounts can persist long after their original purpose has been forgotten, providing a convenient entry point for bad actors. For instance, legacy machine accounts often have privileged access, allowing attackers to move laterally within a network once compromised.
Further complicating matters is the lack of governance over secrets like API keys, certificates, and OAuth tokens. These are often mishandled by development teams, who store them in insecure configurations or fail to rotate them regularly. Studies show that as many as 75% of secrets remain static, increasing the likelihood of their exploitation.
As Greenfield explained, the path to securing these identities begins with clear governance and resource allocation. "It's about creating strategies, integrating goals with business objectives, and ensuring the right resourcing is in place to implement a solid IAM architecture".
Real-World Implications
The risks tied to NHIs are not hypothetical. The MOVEit hack, one of the largest breaches of 2023, demonstrated how vulnerabilities in third-party tools could lead to massive data theft. Similarly, the exploitation of API keys in cloud environments has allowed attackers to access sensitive systems and exfiltrate data undetected.
Marco Venuti, an expert in B2B IAM at Talis Group, highlights the issue: "In our experience, third-party identities often outnumber internal ones. This makes them inherently riskier, as the attack surface expands dramatically with each external connection".
Securing Non-Human Identities: Best Practices
Despite these challenges, there are clear steps organizations can take to mitigate the risks associated with NHIs. Experts recommend the following:
- Audit and Visibility: Organizations must catalog all machine identities and ensure each has a clear owner and purpose. Dormant accounts should be identified and eliminated.
- Governance and Automation: By implementing automated tools for secret management and routine credential rotation, organizations can minimize human error and ensure consistent application of security policies.
- Least Privilege Access: Just-in-time privilege elevation and the deactivation of unused privileges are crucial to preventing lateral movement by attackers.
- Secret-less Authentication: Advanced methods, such as role-based authentication in cloud platforms, eliminate the need for traditional secrets altogether. AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud already offer these capabilities.
- Education and Resourcing: Greenfield emphasizes the need for businesses to resource IAM teams adequately. "It's not just about the tools; it's about building an ecosystem where people, processes, and technologies align to achieve better outcomes"
Looking Ahead: Why Action Can’t Wait
The risks posed by NHIs will only grow as enterprises adopt more automation and digital services. Cybersecurity leaders must recognize that these identities are not a secondary consideration—they are a primary attack vector. Venuti underscores this urgency: "Every unmanaged or under-secured identity is a potential breach waiting to happen".
Ultimately, tackling this issue will require more than technological solutions. It demands a cultural shift within organizations to treat machine identities with the same rigor and attention as human ones. Failure to do so could result in escalating breaches, financial losses, and irreparable damage to reputations.
By addressing these risks today, enterprises can fortify their defenses and ensure that NHIs become a source of operational strength rather than vulnerability.
(Editor’s Note: A portion of this content used a large language model to distill a single source of original content, such as a transcript, data, or research report. This content was conceived, crafted and fact-checked by a staff editor, and any sourced intellectual property used is clearly credited and disclosed.)
