Non-Human Identities (NHIs) have become the #1 identity threat in modern enterprises due to their widespread exposure, weak security controls, and ease of compromise. In 2024, over 50 million leaked API keys, service accounts, and tokens were found on the dark web, a 250% increase since 2021. These exposed NHIs provide cybercriminals with a direct gateway to enterprise environments.

In modern enterprises, Non-Human Identities (NHIs) have surpassed human users by 25 to 50 times, creating an urgent security challenge. These NHIs, ranging from APIs and service accounts to bots and machine identities, control critical operations, automate workflows, and enable seamless integrations. However, their explosive growth has outpaced traditional security measures, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.

The rapid growth of Non-Human Identities (NHIs) in modern enterprises has created a fragmented ecosystem, making security gaps harder to detect and mitigate. Spanning legacy on-prem systems, GenAI, LLMs, API-based architectures, and hybrid clouds, NHIs complicate identity governance, increasing risks and requiring advanced security strategies to ensure protection across diverse environments.

Non-Human Identities (NHIs) are essential to enterprise ecosystems but often lack basic security controls. Many organizations fail to track or enforce NHI security policies, creating exposure. Weak controls enable unauthorized access, privilege escalation, and undetected lateral movement, increasing the risk of breaches and making robust identity security crucial for protecting critical systems.

Non-Human Identities (NHIs) are prime targets for attackers as organizations embrace cloud, automation, and APIs. Service accounts, API keys, and machine identities now dominate digital environments, often with elevated privileges and minimal monitoring. This lack of oversight makes NHIs attractive to cybercriminals seeking high-value targets with low detection risk, increasing enterprise security threats.

As Non-Human Identities (NHIs) continue to expand across enterprise environments, their lack of proper security controls has led to significant breaches. Attackers are exploiting misconfigured APIs, stolen machine credentials, and overprivileged service accounts to gain unauthorized access, move laterally within networks, and exfiltrate sensitive data, all while evading traditional security detection.

Poor management of Non-Human Identities (NHIs) can cause severe compliance violations, risking fines up to 4% of annual revenue under GDPR, SOX, and HIPAA. Beyond financial penalties, non-compliance leads to legal action, reputational harm, and heightened regulatory scrutiny, making robust NHI governance essential for protecting organizations from costly security and compliance risks.

When it comes to Non-Human Identities (NHIs), attackers don’t need hours or even minutes to gain control. The reality is, in many cases, it takes less than one minute for a skilled attacker to compromise an NHI, often setting off a chain reaction that can lead to a much bigger breach.