Non-Human Identities: The Fastest-Growing Threat in IAM and Cybersecurity

In today’s digital battlefield, not all users are flesh and blood. In fact, most aren’t. The silent majority behind modern infrastructure, the service accounts, machine identities, API keys, bots, and scripts, now outnumber their human counterparts by margins as steep as 80 to 1. These non-human identities (NHIs) form the circulatory system of cloud-native enterprises. They move data, trigger automations, call APIs, log telemetry, and, if left unchecked, leave the door wide open for attackers.

For too long, identity programs treated non-human entities like second-class citizens, if they were acknowledged at all. But that era is over. IAM isn’t just about people anymore; it’s about securing every identity, whether it types, clicks, or executes in total silence. At Identity Fusion, we've led this evolution. No other IAM consulting firm has more real-world experience managing non-human identities. From smart farming systems and connected vehicles to AI-driven automation and IoT ecosystems, we’ve been at the heart of securing the machines that now drive digital transformation. RSA Conference 2025 made it crystal clear what we already know: non-human identities aren’t a footnote, they are the front line. 

Identity Is the New Perimeter, Even for Machines

The industry’s rallying cry, “identity is the new perimeter”, was born out of necessity. Firewalls can’t defend you when your biggest threat is credential abuse from the inside out. Attackers no longer crash through the front gate; they slip in through an API key found in a Git repo or a forgotten service account with domain admin rights.

This shift to identity-centric security has exposed a major blind spot: non-human entities often have broad privileges, weak or static credentials, no oversight, and no one accountable for them. They were spun up by DevOps for speed and forgotten just as quickly. But in aggregate, they represent an enormous, unmanaged attack surface, one ripe for exploitation.

Cloud, containers, DevOps, IoT, and AI all contribute to this identity sprawl. Each automation, each microservice, each sensor demands its own credentialed identity. The result? A deluge of NHIs that traditional IAM programs simply weren’t designed to handle. In the average organization today, you’ll find 82 machine identities for every human. And many of those machine accounts hold sensitive or privileged access while flying under the radar of security and audit teams.

Risks Lurking in the Code

The risks are not theoretical. NHIs have already played central roles in some of the most devastating breaches in recent years. Hard-coded passwords in scripts. API keys left in plaintext. Privileged service accounts with no monitoring. The infamous Uber breach was a cautionary tale: a single set of exposed credentials led to full-scale infrastructure compromise.

The problem lies in the way organizations treat NHIs. Credentials aren’t rotated. Access isn’t reviewed. No one’s watching. It’s not just external attackers who exploit this laxity. Insiders or former employees with knowledge of poorly secured service accounts can use them to access systems without raising any flags.

And because these identities aren’t people, there’s no one to “notice” when something goes wrong. A bot won’t complain if its credentials are stolen. A script won’t raise its hand if it’s impersonated. This invisibility is dangerous. It’s also completely preventable, if you put the right controls in place.

From Neglect to Discipline: Best Practices for Machine Identity Governance

Securing non-human identities isn’t a one-time cleanup, it’s a discipline, a governance function, and frankly, a cultural shift. The companies getting it right are embracing several key practices:

• Continuous Discovery: You can’t govern what you can’t see. Maintain a living inventory of all non-human identities, service accounts, certificates, API keys, across environments. Automate discovery. Find the orphans. Kill the ghosts.
• Assign Ownership: Every identity, yes, every one, needs a human owner. No more faceless bots with privileged access and no oversight. Someone must be accountable for each identity’s lifecycle, access, and purpose.
• Enforce Least Privilege: Just because it’s a machine doesn’t mean it should have god mode. Limit NHIs to the bare minimum rights needed. Review and adjust frequently. Cut out the “just-in-case” access, it’s a breach waiting to happen.
• Modernize Credential Management: Say goodbye to static secrets and hello to vaults, short-lived tokens, and automated rotation. Treat every credential like a live grenade, secure it, limit its use, and pull it from service when it's no longer needed.
• Lifecycle Automation: Provision with purpose. Decommission with discipline. NHIs should have expiration dates, approval workflows, and periodic reviews baked into their lifecycle, just like employees.
• Monitor Everything: Bots don’t sleep, and neither should your detection tools. Watch for anomalous behavior. Monitor where identities are being used, when, and from what source. Use AI to detect deviations from baseline.
• Integrate into IAM Governance: Stop treating NHIs as “not my problem.” Bring them into IAM programs. Subject them to MFA (where applicable), access reviews, and audit trails. Treat them like users, because in your system, they are.

Culture Change Is the Hardest, and Most Necessary, Step

This isn’t just a technology problem. It’s a mindset problem. Developers have long operated with autonomy, spinning up machine identities ad hoc to keep innovation flowing. But speed without governance leads to security debt. Now, IAM teams, security leaders, and DevOps must join forces to create unified, automated, and policy-driven controls for all identities, human and machine alike.

That means breaking down silos. It means embedding security into the fabric of DevOps (hello, DevSecOps). It means recognizing that bots are now privileged users too. And it means shifting from a reactive posture to a proactive one, catching anomalous behavior before it becomes a headline.

Final Word: Machines Are Users Now. Treat Them Like It.

In the world we now live in, your biggest user might not have fingers. It might be a script, a daemon, or an orchestration tool quietly moving data from point A to point B. But its impact, and its potential for misuse, is very, very real.

Organizations that get serious about non-human identity management will be the ones that stay ahead of the next breach. Those that don’t? Well, they’ll learn the hard way that ignoring machine identities is like leaving the keys under the mat.

The future of IAM isn’t just human. It is hybrid. And the sooner we manage all identities, regardless of who or what they are, the safer we’ll all be. Because in this digital age, every identity is a doorway. The question is: are you the one holding the key?