The digital ecosystem is rapidly evolving, with non-human identities (NHIs) becoming increasingly prevalent across various platforms and services. Modern organizations now rely on NHIs, such as bots and service accounts, to automate processes and maintain operations within complex digital environments. As a result, securing these identities has become a critical concern for enterprises navigating today’s interconnected systems.

Introduction

In cybersecurity, the conversation has long centred on protecting human users — employees, partners, and customers. But today, the digital ecosystem has shifted. Non-human identities — devices, applications, workloads, APIs, and bots — now vastly outnumber human ones.

Recent studies show that over 70% of all identities in enterprise environments are machine-based. Yet, most organisations lack effective strategies to secure them. This lack of strategy introduces associated risks and security gaps, as unmanaged non-human identities can create vulnerabilities and expose organisations to potential threats. This imbalance has created a new weak link in enterprise security: non-human identity management.

What Are Non-Human Identities?

Non-human identities are digital entities that interact, communicate, and exchange data without direct human involvement (often referred to as non human identities (NHI)). They include:

• IoT and OT devices (medical equipment, industrial controllers, connected vehicles).
• Cloud workloads and microservices.
• APIs, containers, service accounts, and service principals.
• Bots and automated scripts.

Each requires authentication, authorisation, and lifecycle management — just like human identities.

Human Identities vs. Non-Human Identities

Human identities and non-human identities (NHIs) play fundamentally different roles within an organization’s IT infrastructure, each requiring tailored approaches to access management and security controls. Human identities are tied to individual users—employees, contractors, or partners—who authenticate using methods like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO). These users interact with systems directly, and their access is typically governed by well-established identity and access management (IAM) protocols.

In contrast, non-human identities, such as service accounts, API keys, and machine identities, operate autonomously to support automated processes and system integrations. Unlike human identities, NHIs often lack robust security controls and are not subject to the same oversight. They are created to perform specific tasks, frequently with elevated privileges, making them prime targets for attackers seeking to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data or critical systems. If compromised, these non-human identities can be exploited to move laterally within networks, escalate privileges, and trigger significant security breaches. As organizations increasingly rely on automation and interconnected systems, managing non-human identities becomes essential to maintaining a strong security posture and preventing unauthorized access.

Why They’re the Weakest Link

Failure to secure non-human identities creates major risks:

1. Unmanaged Certificates and Keys – Expired or static credentials are easy targets for attackers.
2. Shadow Identities – Rogue devices and service accounts often bypass IT oversight.
3. Privilege Misuse – Excessive privileged access for machine identities can be exploited to access sensitive data, enabling lateral movement and unauthorized exposure of critical information.
4. Compliance Gaps and Risks – Regulations such as NIST, WP.29, HIPAA, and the EU Cyber Resilience Act mandate strong identity governance, and failing to comply introduces compliance risks that can result in penalties and audit failures.

Unmanaged non-human identities can expose organizations to significant security risks, serving as a potential entry point for attackers seeking to compromise systems and data.

With attackers increasingly targeting machine-to-machine communication, non-human identities are now the frontline of cyberattacks. Supply chain attacks are also a growing concern due to the proliferation of non-human identities throughout software development and vendor ecosystems.

The Role of Zero Trust in Non-Human Identity Security

Zero Trust principles apply just as strongly to non-human identities as to users. This means:

• Never trust a device or workload by default.
• Always verify identity before granting access.
• Continuously monitor and authenticate across the lifecycle.

Establishing robust security policies and security protocols for non-human identities is essential to ensure consistent rules, prevent vulnerabilities, and enforce proper access controls.

But Zero Trust cannot succeed without automated identity management for these entities.

Cloud Environments: Expanding the Attack Surface

The rapid adoption of cloud environments has led to an explosion in the use of non-human identities (NHIs), such as service accounts and API keys, to enable secure communication and automated workflows between cloud services. While these NHIs are critical for enhancing operational efficiency, they also introduce unique security challenges by significantly expanding the attack surface. In cloud environments, attackers can exploit poorly managed NHIs to gain access to cloud resources, sensitive data, and critical systems, often bypassing traditional security controls.

Cloud services like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud rely heavily on NHIs to manage resources and automate processes. Without proper security controls, lifecycle management, and continuous monitoring, these digital entities can become potential entry points for attackers. To address these risks, organizations must implement robust access control, enforce proper lifecycle management, and monitor NHI activity in real time. By doing so, they can reduce the likelihood of security breaches, ensure compliance with regulatory frameworks, and maintain the integrity of their cloud environments.

Lifecycle Management of Non-Human Identities

Effective lifecycle management of non-human identities (NHIs) is a cornerstone of modern cybersecurity. NHIs, including service accounts and API keys, go through a lifecycle that starts with creation and provisioning, continues with active monitoring and credential rotation, and ends with deprovisioning when they are no longer needed. Each stage presents its own security risks if not properly managed.

To minimize these risks, organizations should assign only the permissions necessary for each NHI to perform its designated tasks, regularly rotate credentials to prevent unauthorized access, and continuously monitor NHI activity for signs of misuse. When an NHI is no longer required, prompt deprovisioning is essential to eliminate unnecessary access and reduce the risk of compliance violations or security breaches. Integrating NHI management into DevOps and deployment pipelines ensures that non-human identities are properly managed throughout their lifecycle, supporting a strong security posture and regulatory compliance.

Access Control Challenges for Non-Human Identities

Managing access control for non-human identities (NHIs) presents significant challenges, particularly because these entities often require elevated privileges to perform automated tasks. Unlike human identities, NHIs can accumulate excessive permissions over time, increasing the risk of exploitation if compromised. Attackers frequently target NHIs with excessive privileges to gain unauthorized access to sensitive systems and data.

To address these challenges, organizations should implement robust access control frameworks, such as attribute-based access control (ABAC) and role-based access control (RBAC), to ensure that NHIs are granted only the permissions necessary for their functions. Continuous monitoring of NHI activity and the use of anomaly detection tools can help identify and mitigate potential security risks before they escalate. By enforcing least privilege principles and regularly reviewing access rights, organizations can reduce the risk of security breaches associated with non-human identities.

How Device Authority Secures Non-Human Identities

Device Authority’s KeyScaler 2025 is designed to secure non-human identities at scale. It enables organisations to:

• Automate Identity Provisioning – Every device and workload gets a unique, verifiable identity.
• Manage Certificates and Keys Dynamically – Automate issuance, rotation, and revocation.
• Discover Shadow Identities – Expose unmanaged or rogue entities in real time.
• Enforce Policy-Based Access Control – Apply Zero Trust principles across IoT, OT, and cloud.
• Ensure Continuous Compliance – Map identity management to regulatory frameworks automatically.

KeyScaler 2025 supports robust risk management by enabling security teams to monitor and control non-human identities, reducing vulnerabilities and ensuring compliance. Its continuous behavioral monitoring and lifecycle management help protect critical resources by providing proactive threat detection and alerting teams to potential threats before they escalate.

This approach eliminates blind spots and closes the gaps attackers exploit.

Regulatory Frameworks and Compliance Considerations

Regulatory frameworks such as NIST CSF, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001 increasingly recognize the importance of managing non-human identities (NHIs) to mitigate security risks and ensure compliance. These standards require organizations to implement proper security controls, including access management, continuous monitoring, and comprehensive lifecycle management for all digital identities – both human and non-human.

Service accounts, API keys, and other NHIs must be properly managed to prevent security breaches and avoid compliance violations. Security professionals should prioritize the implementation of robust NHI management programs, ensuring that all non-human identities are assigned appropriate permissions, monitored continuously, and deprovisioned when no longer needed. By aligning NHI management with regulatory requirements, organizations can enhance their security posture, reduce the risk of data breaches, and ensure compliance with industry standards.

Best Practices for Non-Human Identity Security

1. Inventory All Identities – Map both human and non-human entities, including machine identities, across the enterprise.
2. Automate Lifecycle Management – Replace static credentials with dynamic certificate management for both human and machine identities.
3. Integrate with Zero Trust – Ensure machine-to-machine trust is built into access policies.
4. Monitor Continuously – Detect anomalies in identity behaviour and identify potential nhi security gaps.
5. Prepare for Compliance Audits – Use automated reports to meet regulatory requirements.
6. Integrate Non-Human Identity Security into Continuous Integration Pipelines – Embed security controls and monitoring for machine identities within continuous integration workflows to streamline development and deployment processes.

After implementing these best practices, it is crucial to identify and address security gaps through robust security strategies and effective machine identity management. This approach helps reduce the attack surface and ensures regulatory compliance in complex digital environments.

Conclusion

As machine identities outnumber humans, cybersecurity strategies must evolve. There are key differences between human and non-human identities, especially in security protocols, oversight, and monitoring, which require distinct management approaches. Non-human identities are now the weakest link, and without robust management, organisations risk breaches, downtime, and compliance failures.

With KeyScaler, Device Authority delivers automated, scalable, and compliant security for non-human identities – ensuring Zero Trust extends across every digital entity in the enterprise. By reducing the need for human intervention through automation, organisations can enhance the security of non-human identities and minimize manual errors.