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Featured in Our NHI & Agentic AI Security Products Directory

Akeyless
Teleport
GitGuardian
Unosecur
P0 Security
Saviynt
Clarity Security
Arcon
Opal Security
C1.ai
Nexis
PlainID
Ambient Security
Whiteswan Security
Upstream Security
Linux Guard
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Why it matters

Why NHI & AI Agent Security Matters

Non-human identities already run the enterprise. AI agents now act on their own with those same credentials — at machine speed.

The #1 Identity Threat

NHIs and AI agents are now the most exploited identities in the enterprise.

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The #1 Identity Threat

API keys, service accounts, tokens and now AI agents are widely exposed, weakly controlled and easy to compromise. In 2024, over 50 million leaked API keys, service accounts and tokens were found on the dark web — a 250% increase since 2021.

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Outnumber Humans 50–⁠100x

Machine identities already dwarf human ones — and every AI agent adds more.

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Outnumber Humans 50–⁠100x

APIs, service accounts, bots and workloads run critical operations and outnumber human identities 50 to 100 times. Each AI agent brings its own identities, keys and tokens, so the attack surface grows faster than traditional security can follow.

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Agents Act Autonomously

AI agents chain actions across systems with no human in the loop.

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Agents Act Autonomously

An AI agent authenticates with real credentials, calls tools and APIs, and acts on its own decisions. Access is delegated, chained and often broader than intended — so one compromised or misbehaving agent can reach far beyond its task.

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Agent & Identity Sprawl

Agents and service accounts are created faster than IAM can govern them.

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Agent & Identity Sprawl

Teams spin up agents, MCP servers, integrations and automation every day across cloud, SaaS, on-prem and AI platforms. Without discovery, ownership and lifecycle management they become shadow access no one reviews or retires.

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Over-Privileged by Default

97% of NHIs carry excessive privileges — and AI agents inherit them.

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Over-Privileged by Default

Non-human identities are routinely granted far more access than they need and are rarely rotated or reviewed. When an AI agent runs on those credentials it inherits the excess, turning least-privilege gaps into fast, automated paths to sensitive data.

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New AI Attack Paths

Prompt injection, tool and MCP abuse, and credentials leaked through agents.

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New AI Attack Paths

Attackers no longer need to steal a key directly — they can manipulate the agent that holds it. Prompt injection, poisoned tools and data, over-scoped MCP connections and secrets exposed in prompts or logs all turn AI agents into new ways in.

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Breaches Are Already Here

Real NHI and AI agent breaches show the same patterns again and again.

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Breaches Are Already Here

Leaked secrets, stolen tokens, compromised OAuth integrations and supply-chain attacks sit behind many of the most damaging recent breaches. Our breach database analyses 100+ real-world NHI and AI agent incidents — attack routes, identities and lessons.

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Governance & Regulatory Pressure

GDPR, SOX and the EU AI Act all demand control over who — and what — has access.

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Governance & Regulatory Pressure

Regulators expect every identity, human or non-human, to be governed, auditable and least-privileged. Poor NHI management risks GDPR fines of up to 4% of annual revenue, and the EU AI Act adds obligations for how AI systems are governed and overseen.

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How mature is your NHI & AI agent governance? Take our free 5-minute assessment and get a personalised report with your top risks.

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NHI Mgmt Group Core Resources

Everything practitioners need to understand, govern, and secure Non-Human Identities, including AI Agents — independently researched and maintained by NHI Mgmt Group.

Lifecycle

NHI & AI Agent Lifecycle Management

Without lifecycle management, non-human identities and AI agents become security blind spots. Every stage matters — from discovery and classification to securing credentials, monitoring and decommissioning. Green points are where AI agents change the job.

NHI & AI Agent Lifecycle Management: seven stages

Click or tap any stage to jump to its detail

  1. 1

    Provisioning & Decommissioning

    • Static NHIs in vault
    • Just-in-time NHIs
    • Least privilege
    • Recertification
    • Decommissioning
    • Agent identity at creation, with a named ownerAI agents
  2. 2

    Discovery & Inventory

    • Identity providers, directory services
    • Local accounts
    • Hybrid cloud, SaaS, on-prem
    • Scanning repositories for NHIs
    • Find agents, MCP servers and AI API keysAI agents
  3. 3

    Classification

    • Ownership
    • Permissions, usage
    • Breadth of access
    • Hard-coded NHIs
    • Agent autonomy level and delegated accessAI agents
  4. 4

    Posture Management

    • Excessive permissions
    • Misconfigurations
    • Inactive / shared accounts
    • Environment segregation
    • Agent tool permissions and over-scoped tokensAI agents
  5. 5

    Securing Credentials

    • Encryption
    • Passwordless credentials
    • Vaulting
    • Cycling & rotation
    • Short-lived, scoped credentials for agentsAI agents
  6. 6

    Monitoring Controls

    • Anomaly detection
    • Human usage of NHIs
    • False positives
    • Agent action logging and behaviour anomaliesAI agents
  7. 7

    Prevent Controls

    • Stop check-in of NHIs
    • Dynamic, ephemeral secrets
    • Real-time protection
    • Guardrails, kill switch, human approval for risky actionsAI agents

  8. Go Deeper

    The full lifecycle guide, with controls for every stage.

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Our services

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Knowledge & Education

Training, security guides, breach analysis, FAQ, glossary, podcast and forum — the industry's deepest library on NHIs and AI agents.

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Advisory & Consulting

Risk assessments, strategy, governance and vendor selection for NHIs and AI agents — independent and hands-on.

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Why choose us

Specialists, Not Generalists

Unrivalled Knowledge

One of the world’s largest independent libraries on NHIs and AI agents. Research, guides, breach analysis, training and a podcast, trusted by 100,000+ security professionals.

Authority That Gets You Seen

Partnered with 30+ cyber security vendors. CybFluence gets your expertise cited by AI search and in front of identity, AI and security buyers.

Practitioner-Led Advice

25+ years running $10M–$20M+ global NHI programmes. When you need hands-on guidance, our advisory team is ready.

Founded by Lalit Choda — “Mr. NHI”

NHI Mgmt Group was founded by Lalit Choda, an independent security practitioner with over 25 years of experience across tier-one financial institutions, specialising in identity, access management, and Non-Human Identity (NHI) risk.

  • Widely recognised as “Mr. NHI” for his early and sustained focus on NHI management and security, long before it became a mainstream discipline
  • Leads NHI Mgmt Group’s independent research, practitioner frameworks, and the industry’s only CPD-accredited NHI training programme
  • Global keynote speaker at security conferences and industry events, including Identiverse and KuppingerCole EIC
  • Host of the Non-Human & AI Identity Podcast
About NHI Mgmt Group