Decoding Non-Human Identities A CISO's Guide to Navigating the Machine Identity Maze

The Expanding Universe of Non-Human Identities

Non-human identities (nhis) are kinda blowing up, right? It's not just about the number of 'machines' we got anymore – it's a whole new way of thinking about identity.

• Think of apis, applications, those little microservices, and even service accounts. See, it's not just servers sitting in a closet. It’s way more than that.
• These nhis are growing fast. Like, way faster than the number of actual humans in your org. It's a scale thing, and it's kinda important.

Cloud adoption is a big driver, with systems spread all over the place. Automation and devops are also throwing fuel on the fire and ai and machine learning, well, they're just accelerating everything. According to the Cloud Security Alliance, nhis can outnumber human identities by 10x-50x.

So, what's next? Let's dive deeper into why this explosion of nhis is happening.

NHI Risks Confronting the Modern Enterprise

Okay, so you're probably thinking, "what's the big deal with nhis anyway?" Well, it turns out these non-human thingies can be a major security headache if you're not careful.

• Credential sprawl is a huge risk. Think about it: static credentials, hardcoded passwords floating around... it's a recipe for disaster. I mean, if a bad actor gets their hands on those, it's game over.
• Over-permissioning nhis? Yeah, that's a thing too. It's like giving the keys to the whole kingdom to a service account that only needs to, like, unlock one door.
• And then there's the classic lack of visibility. If you can't see what your nhis are doing, how do you know if they're up to no good?

Like, imagine a retailer whose Point of Sale system's api gets compromised. Suddenly, customer credit card info is up for grabs. It's not just about data theft either; think about the reputational damage!

According to Delinea , there are 46 nonhuman identities for every one human identity.

So, what happens when one of these breaches actually happens? Let's take a look.

Human vs Non-Human Identities A Critical Comparison

Human and non-human identities? Worlds apart, tbh. It's not just about who is accessing what, but how they're doing it.

• Authentication: Humans use passwords, mfa, the usual stuff. nhis? api keys, tokens, certificates... it's way more code-y.
• Authorization: People get access based on their job. nhis should only get what they absolutely need, think least privilege, always.
• Lifecycle: Humans got hr to manage things. nhis? It's all about automation, rotation, and, like, actually getting rid of em when they're done.

Think of it like this: a hospital employee needs access to patient records, with mfa and all that jazz. But, the ai powering a diagnostic tool needs access to that same database... using a certificate that rotates every hour.

So, how do we manage all this? Let's talk authentication and authorization differences...

Building a Robust NHI Security Strategy

Okay, so ready to build a solid NHI security strategy? It's not just about slapping on some tech; it's a whole mindset shift really.

• Discovery and inventory: you can't protect what you don't know exists, right? Gotta find all those nhis lurking in your systems. Think service accounts, apis, that random script running in the cloud, and more.
• Risk assessment: not all nhis are created equal. Some have way more access than others, so prioritize based on potential impact. If a point-of-sale api goes down, it is more important than a script that runs once a year.
• Centralized policy: Get those policies in order, people! Consistent rules across the board means less chance for screw-ups. Enforce things like password rotation, mfa (where possible), and least privilege access.

So, like, how does this actually work? picture a bank. They could start by using a tool to automatically discover all their service accounts across different cloud platforms. Then, they assess which accounts have access to customer data and make securing them a priority.

As Cloud Security Alliance notes, nhis can outnumber human identities by a lot. So, it's worth the effort.

Next up, we'll look at implementing least privilege access...

Tools and Technologies for NHI Management

So, you're probably wondering how to wrangle all these nhis, right? Well, it all boils down to having the right tools and tech in place. It's not a one-size-fits-all kinda thing, but there's definitely some key categories to keep in mind.

• secrets management and workload iam (wiam), like, traditional secrets managers can fall short when dealing with the scale and dynamic nature of nhis. wiam solutions, on the other hand, offer policy-based access control and secretless authentication, which makes things way more secure and manageable.
• zero trust and conditional access is a big deal, too. Applying zero trust principles to nhis means verifying their posture and context before granting access. Think continuous monitoring and threat detection, so you know if somethings up.
• automation and orchestration are key for keeping things running smoothly. IaC lets you manage nhis like code, and integrating with ci/cd pipelines means automated credential rotation and revocation.

It's a complex puzzle, but piecing it together with the right tools can make all the difference. As mentioned earlier, the Cloud Security Alliance notes that nhis can outnumber human identities by a lot. So, it's worth the effort.

Now, let's wrap things up...