In most boardrooms, when identity security is mentioned, the focus defaults to people, employees, contractors, and customers. But in today’s digital enterprise, the biggest identity risk isn’t human. It’s non-human, and it's growing fast. Non-Human Identities (NHIs), including service accounts, API tokens, machine identities, and automation scripts, now outnumber human identities by more than 50 to 1 in many environments. And yet, they remain largely unmanaged. No MFA. No access reviews. Often, no governance whatsoever.
This is no longer a technical oversight. It’s a business liability.
NHIs: The Unseen Attack Surface
In the rush to modernize and automate, organizations have left a gaping hole: embedded credentials scattered across source code, hard-coded into DevOps pipelines, and forgotten in legacy applications. These NHIs often carry elevated privileges, operate 24/7, and bypass user behavior analytics. Cybercriminals know it. In 2024 alone, over 27 million secrets were leaked on GitHub, most tied to NHIs. Worse: more than 70% of those secrets from 2022 are still active today.
That means your systems may be relying on credentials the attackers already have.
It’s Not Just Digital, Hardware Is a Risk Too
Recent research has exposed that common microphones in laptops and smart devices may emit electromagnetic signals during voice processing, signals that can be intercepted through walls with basic equipment and reconstructed into audible conversations using AI.
These are flaws at the hardware design level, and they don’t require malware or consent. Combine that with Bluetooth headset vulnerabilities allowing silent call hijacking, and your boardroom may already be compromised without you knowing it.
What It Means for You, as a Business Leader
You’ve invested in IAM. You’ve probably hired staff, brought in consultants, and deployed tools. But if your program doesn’t govern NHIs as aggressively as it does human users, you’ve built a castle and left the side gate wide open.
Consider the following questions:
- Do you have a complete inventory of all non-human identities across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid systems?
- Are those identities subject to the same lifecycle governance, approval, review, rotation, and deprovisioning, as human users?
- Can your security team detect privilege escalation or lateral movement initiated by a machine identity?
- Has your procurement team evaluated microphone and headset vulnerabilities in your device fleet?
If the answer to any of these is "no" or "we're working on it," then attackers already have the advantage.
What to Do, And Why It’s Urgent
This isn’t a future threat. It’s current. Immediate. And escalating.
Here’s what leadership must enforce:
- NHI Inventory and Classification
Require your IAM and SecOps teams to discover and categorize all machine identities, service accounts, and tokens, across every platform and environment.
- Secrets Management and Rotation
Mandate automated credential rotation policies and vault-based secrets management. Hard-coded secrets should be flagged and remediated as a matter of policy.
- Governance Policy for NHIs
Extend identity governance processes, such as approval workflows, recertifications, and least privilege enforcement, to non-human identities. If it's accessing data or systems, it needs oversight.
- Third-Party Device Audits
Conduct procurement reviews and penetration testing of hardware, especially microphones, smart assistants, and Bluetooth headsets. Prioritize vendors with security-by-design.
- Report NHI Risk to the Board
Make NHI governance part of your regular cybersecurity risk reporting. It belongs on the same slide as phishing, ransomware, and third-party access.
Identity Security Is No Longer Just About People
If your IAM strategy is only securing humans, it’s outdated.
The modern attack surface is automated. Machine-driven. Scripted. And invisible. Business leaders who ignore this reality will find themselves spending millions on breach response instead of prevention. But those who act decisively, governing all identities, human and non-human, will hold the strategic high ground in an era defined by silent threats.
