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Modern enterprise systems rely heavily on non-human identities (NHIs) such as service accounts, API keys, OAuth tokens, and application secrets. These digital identities now outnumber human users in many organizations, sometimes by as much as 50-to-1. Yet, despite their scale and critical function, NHIs remain undersecured.
A recent Enterprise Strategy Group report found that 46% of organizations experienced compromises of NHIs, while 26% suspect they have. Experts say this growing attack surface is now becoming a primary focus area for CISOs worldwide.
Automation Fuels NHI Explosion
The surge in NHIs stems from rapid adoption of cloud services, AI automation, and digital workflows. These identities help applications authenticate with each other and external services, enabling seamless machine-to-machine communication.
But NHIs are just as sensitive as user credentials sometimes even more so. They often grant persistent access and elevated permissions, making them attractive to attackers.
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Poor Practices Lead to Secret Leakage
NHIs frequently use static credentials, are rarely rotated, and lack multi-factor authentication. Many are hardcoded into source code, accidentally published, or shared across environments.
Security firm GitGuardian discovered over 27 million secrets in public GitHub repositories in 2024 alone many of which were tied to NHIs. Unlike human passwords, NHI secrets often remain active for long periods, giving attackers extended access.
CISOs Face 3 Core NHI Management Challenges
1. Visibility Gaps
Most organizations lack a complete inventory of NHIs. Thousands may exist across cloud and DevOps environments without oversight. Without visibility, securing these identities is nearly impossible. Tools like identity security posture management platforms are helping CISOs gain better control.
2. Risk Prioritization
Not all NHIs pose equal risk. Some have far more privileges than necessary, increasing the potential blast radius if compromised. Experts recommend identifying and reducing over-privileged accounts to lower attack exposure.
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“It’s about understanding the blast radius associated with each non-human identity,” said Mark Sutton, CISO at Bain Capital. “Not all NHIs carry the same threat.”
3. Governance and Lifecycle Management
NHIs are often created on the fly by developers and never decommissioned. Many use weak or outdated credentials that haven’t been rotated in years. Security leaders stress the need for strict governance policies, tracking who creates NHIs, why, and how they’re managed over time.
Growing Industry Attention and Investment
With NHI-related breaches becoming more common such as the 2024 Internet Archive token leak organizations are starting to act. Over 80% of enterprises are expected to increase spending on NHI security this year.
Experts say securing NHIs is the next logical step after maturing human identity management.
Non-human identities are essential for enabling digital operations but represent one of the most overlooked cybersecurity risks today. Unlike users, NHIs operate silently in the background, often unmanaged and over-permissioned.
As NHIs continue to grow in number and complexity, securing them is no longer optional. From discovery and visibility to governance and rotation, a holistic identity-first approach is required one that treats NHIs with the same urgency as human users.
About the author – Ayush Chaurasia is a postgraduate student passionate about cybersecurity, threat hunting, and global affairs. He explores the intersection of technology, psychology, national security, and geopolitics through insightful writing.
