Securing Your Non-Human Identities with Privileged Access Management

Microsoft’s 2024 Digital Defense Report notes that more than 99% of identity-based cyberattacks are password attacks, which is why most IT security teams focus their attention on human users. We diligently train employees, enforce strong password policies, and battle phishing attempts, all to fortify our defenses against our weakest link. But what about the other identities on your network? What about the users accessing our network behind the scenes? 

We're talking about non-human identities (NHI). Like human users, non-human identities use digital keys and credentials to access our networks, and yet, we often fail to manage them effectively, if at all. And, as we implement stronger authentication methods for our human users, attacks against our non-human users become more common. 

With the proliferation of AI, IoT devices, and ever more complex cloud environments, our non-human workforce often operates in the shadows, creating a significant security blindspot. 

What Is a Non-Human Identity?

A non-human identity, also known as a machine identity, is a digital key or credential used by a machine or application to authenticate and access resources. Here are some examples you may already have on your network:

• Service Accounts are like user profiles for software and are used to run services or access your databases. 
• SSH Keys are often seen in your automated scripts, like the ones in your CI/CD pipelines. These keys allow your scripts to log in and deploy code securely and without the need for human intervention.  
• Agentic AI: These are the identities used by autonomous AI systems designed to perform tasks, make decisions, and interact with other systems independently. They may use API keys or service accounts to access your network, but agentic AI operates with a higher level of autonomy that increases their potential risk. 
• Cloud Admin Roles are highly privileged identities assigned to cloud services like Azure or AWS. 
• Secrets are access credentials stored within your code or configuration files. 
• API Keys & OAuth Tokens are used to facilitate seamless access between different software applications.

Why are Non-Human Identities So Difficult to Secure?

With all the onboarding, offboarding, and crossboarding, it’s no wonder that we put so much focus on securing human identities. We focus on our human users because we know they are the weakest link, susceptible to fraud and an easy target for social engineering. And, truth be told, for many organizations, securing human identities consumes most of their time and resources, leaving non-human identities to chance.

Beyond the limitations of bandwidth and budget, non-human identities are more difficult to secure for several reasons. 

It’s a Question of Scale: Modern data infrastructure is built on APIs. A single developer can create dozens of applications and scripts, each with its own identity and credentials. The sheer volume of potential machine identities makes manual management impossible. 

Lack of Visibility: Frequently hardcoded into source code, configuration files, or build scripts, non-human identities often live outside of traditional identity systems. This lack of visibility makes them easy to forget about and nearly impossible to manage. 

Static & Shared: Most organizations require human users to frequently change their passwords, but non-human credentials are often “set and forget” and shared across multiple systems, dramatically increasing your attack surface.

Whose Job Is It Anyways: Who is responsible for that API you added last year? Who has oversight over the security of your third-party service accounts? Without clear owners, your non-human identities can run amuck, leaving you with hidden vulnerabilities. 

Applying Privileged Access Management (PAM) Principles to Non-Human Identities

When we talk about admin access, we tend to think in terms of the permissions we give network administrators, IT teams, and management, but that’s just one part of it. Many non-human identities are granted similar levels of access, but without the necessary oversight. 

Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions provide essential visibility and control over your most privileged accounts, but even without a dedicated PAM tool, there are still things you can do to apply PAM principles to secure non-human identities throughout your network. 

Step 1: Centralize Your Identities: Identify all your non-human identities and pull their access credentials into a centralized vault. If you find that you have hardcoded secrets in your code and configuration files, this is the time to eliminate them.

Step 2: Implement Least Privilege: Many non-human identities are over-privileged. Ensure that each non-human identity is given access to only the bare minimum it needs to perform its assigned task.

Step 3: Automate Rotation of Credentials: To shrink your attack surface and reduce the window of opportunity for attackers, use a PAM solution to automatically rotate machine credentials (passwords, keys, tokens) frequently.

Step 4: Maintain Detailed Audit Trails: PAM can help you achieve a clear visibility over all identities, so you can maintain a complete, immutable audit trail of which machine accessed what resource, and when.

Bringing Your Non-Human Identities Out of the Shadows

To protect our networks we must use a comprehensive approach that secures access for all users, not just humans. Applying PAM principles to non-human identities gives you essential visibility and control, transforming these potential blind spots to reduce your attack surface and protect your business’s future.