2024 Non-Human Identity Security Report
Aembit - 2024 Non-Human Identity Security Report
The 2024 Non-Human Identity Security Report by Aembit delves into the evolving landscape of non-human identities (NHIs) in IT environments. As organizations increasingly rely on automated processes, applications, and services, the security of these NHIs becomes paramount. The report highlights several key findings and challenges faced by organizations in managing NHIs.
Key Findings
IAM Maturity Gap: A significant 88.5% of organizations acknowledge that their non-human identity and access management (IAM) practices lag behind or are merely on par with their user IAM efforts. This gap indicates a critical need for focused investment and improvement in non-human IAM.
Outdated Methods: While 51% of respondents use cloud provider IAM tools for NHIs, 38.9% still rely on less secure methods like secrets managers for authentication and authorization. This reliance on outdated methods poses significant security risks.
Cloud Complexity: Managing consistent access across hybrid and multi-cloud environments is the top challenge for 35.6% of organizations. The complexity of these environments makes it difficult to maintain a consistent security posture.
Insecure Practices: Alarmingly, 30.9% of organizations store long-term credentials directly in code, 23.7% share secrets through insecure methods like email or messaging apps, and 15.5% use manual spreadsheets to store secrets. These practices expose organizations to significant security vulnerabilities.
Low Confidence: Only 19.6% of respondents express strong confidence in their non-human IAM practices, while 23.7% report little to no confidence. This lack of confidence underscores the need for improved security measures and practices.
Rotation Risks: The lack of regular key rotation is identified as the most significant threat to non-human identity security by 29.6% of respondents. Without regular rotation, organizations are vulnerable to credential compromise.
Blind Spots: Nearly a quarter of respondents (23.5%) are unsure about the biggest threat to their non-human identities, indicating a concerning lack of awareness and understanding of potential risks.
Demand for More: A majority of respondents (59.8%) see value in a solution that simplifies non-human access management and introduces dynamic, ephemeral credentials. This demand highlights the need for more advanced and user-friendly security solutions.
Survey Methodology
The survey gathered insights from 110 participants across various roles within the IT and security sectors, including developers, IAM practitioners, security engineers, product managers, and executive-level professionals like CTOs and CSOs. The survey aimed to assess the maturity of non-human IAM practices, the methods employed, the challenges faced, and the confidence levels in current IAM practices.
Detailed Findings
1. Non-Human IAM Maturity
The report reveals that many organizations are still playing catch-up when it comes to non-human IAM. While user IAM has seen significant advancements with solutions like SSO, MFA, and Zero Trust, non-human IAM remains a patchwork of systems leading to inefficiencies and security gaps. Only 11.5% of respondents believe their organizations are more mature in managing non-human IAM compared to user IAM, with 29.8% believing they are on par. This indicates a critical need for organizations to develop comprehensive strategies for managing non-human IAM.
2. Confidence in Current IAM Methods
Confidence in current methods of managing non-human identities is surprisingly low. Only 19.6% of respondents express a high level of confidence in their organization's ability to securely manage non-human workload identities. This lack of confidence highlights the unique challenges of managing non-human identities, which are often more dynamic and harder to monitor and secure compared to user IAM.
3. Lack of Key Rotation
The lack of regular key rotation is identified as the top threat to non-human identity security. Static, long-lived credentials can become significant vulnerabilities if not regularly rotated or replaced with short-lived tokens. Regular key rotation is crucial to minimize the window of opportunity for potential breaches.
4. Risky Practices Persist
Despite growing awareness around securing non-human workload identities, many organizations continue to rely on risky practices. Storing long-term access secrets in code, sharing keys through insecure methods, and using manual spreadsheets to track access information are common practices that expose organizations to significant security risks.
5. Mixed Methods for Managing Non-Human Identities
Organizations are experimenting with various methods to manage non-human identities, with mixed results. While cloud provider IAM tools and secrets managers are commonly used, some organizations still rely on less secure methods like password managers and spreadsheets. This highlights the need for more robust and unified solutions to manage non-human IAM effectively.
6. Challenges in Multi-Cloud Environments
Managing non-human workload identities across hybrid and multi-cloud environments is a significant challenge. The use of various IAM tools like AWS IAM, Azure AD, and Google Cloud IAM can lead to potential security gaps. Additionally, the reliance on static, long-lived credentials and the burden on developers to manage authentication add to the complexity.
Conclusion
The 2024 Non-Human Identity Security Report underscores the critical need for organizations to prioritize and improve their non-human IAM practices. As the number and complexity of non-human identities continue to grow, organizations must move beyond ad hoc solutions and develop comprehensive strategies to manage and secure these identities. Implementing automated credential rotation, enhancing logging and monitoring, tightening access controls, and experimenting with secretless authentication methods are practical steps organizations can take to improve their non-human identity management.