Non-Human Identity Management: Securing the Future of Enterprise Systems
Identity management is a cornerstone of enterprise security, controlling how authorized entities—whether individuals, software, or devices—can access data and perform actions. Traditionally, human identities have been the focal point of identity and access management (IAM). However, as enterprise systems evolve, non-human identities (NHIs) have surged in importance, driven by shifts in infrastructure and workload architecture. These NHIs are now a central focus, presenting new challenges to the security landscape.
The New Security Risks of Non-Human Identities
The shift toward hybrid multi-cloud environments, microservices architectures, and agile development practices has spurred an explosive increase in non-human identities—service accounts, IAM roles, tokens, API keys, secrets, and more. Today, the number of NHIs in most organizations outnumbers human identities by a factor of 10 to 50, significantly expanding the attack surface. With AI-driven automation playing an increasingly vital role in business operations, the number of NHIs is expected to grow even more.
One major risk associated with unmanaged NHIs is their high privilege level. On average, organizations have five times more highly privileged NHIs than human identities. The absence of traditional security safeguards, such as biometrics or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), makes these identities particularly vulnerable. As organizations continue to lack comprehensive management of NHIs, attack surfaces grow, creating toxic vulnerabilities. This leaves enterprises exposed to increasing cyber risks, including:
- 38TB of data accidentally exposed by Microsoft AI researchers
- Okta breach involving stolen customer access tokens
- Slack employee tokens stolen, leading to GitHub repository breaches
- CircleCI security breach (January 4, 2023)
Given their critical role, securing NHIs has become paramount, as a compromised NHI could result in data exfiltration or disruption of core business functions.
Traditional Security Solutions Fall Short
Current security stacks—IAM, PAM, CSPM, Secret Managers—are not equipped to manage the unique lifecycle and operational challenges of NHIs.
- IAM and PAM: These tools are designed to handle human identities and break-glass accounts. They are built on a centralized management model, where identities are provisioned and managed by a central team, with the ability to implement MFA.
- Secret Managers: While they focus on storing secrets, they lack identity-awareness. They do not understand ownership, usage, permissions, or resources, which limits their ability to enforce security policies or automate processes like secret rotation.
- CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management): While focused on cloud infrastructures, CSPMs do not offer an identity-first approach and are limited to posture management. They do not provide the tools necessary to remediate risks, allowing security issues to pile up without resolution.
The lack of holistic visibility and control over NHIs’ lifecycle can result in major downtime, security gaps, and operational disruptions—especially when responding to threats or maintaining business-critical systems.
NexusIAM: Comprehensive Non-Human Identity Management
NexusIAM was designed to close the NHI security gap. Our mission is to strengthen cybersecurity defenses and simplify operations by providing security, identity, and operations teams with the tools needed to manage NHIs effectively at scale, throughout their lifecycle.
NexusIAM is the first enterprise-grade Non-Human Identity Management platform, built specifically to secure the entire lifecycle of NHIs in hybrid cloud environments. The platform is easy to set up and integrates seamlessly with leading cloud and enterprise SaaS providers. NexusIAM automatically discovers NHIs across your infrastructure, continuously analyzes your environment, and identifies, classifies, and resolves security posture risks. The platform generates auto-tailored remediation plans that can be executed manually, semi-automatically, or fully autonomously.
With NexusIAM, organizations can:
- Gain comprehensive visibility into all NHIs across their hybrid cloud infrastructure.
- Automate the discovery, classification, and resolution of NHI-related risks.
- Manage the entire lifecycle of NHIs with tailored, context-driven security policies.
- Streamline operations, improve security posture, and reduce the risk of downtime or breaches.
Get Started with NexusIAM
Non-human identity management is critical to securing your digital ecosystem. Contact us for a free assessment to see how NexusIAM can strengthen your security posture and protect your business from evolving cyber threats.