Topic starter
15/08/2026 6:09 pm
TL;DR: The core issue is not entry control but the collapse of standing privilege assumptions once AI agents and workloads can act continuously, according to Britive. Cisco Duo and Britive integration extends Zero Trust from authentication into runtime privilege control, with ephemeral access, policy enforcement, and auditability across human, non-human, and agentic identities.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Britive: “Cisco Duo and Britive: Extending Zero Trust to Human, Non-Human, and Agentic Identities”.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when security teams keep standing privilege for AI agents and workloads?
A: Standing privilege breaks the assumption that access is temporary and reviewable.
Q: When do ephemeral credentials reduce risk, and when do they not?
A: They reduce risk when issuance is tied to verified workload identity, strict scope, and short validity.
Q: What are the signs that runtime privilege control is not working?
A: Warning signs include long-lived tokens, access grants that outlast the task, inconsistent revocation, and agents or workloads that keep permissions after their purpose is complete.
Practitioner guidance
- Enforce task-scoped access for every non-human identity Replace standing secrets and persistent role grants with access that is issued per task and revoked automatically when the task ends.
- Separate entry authentication from runtime privilege decisions Keep MFA, device trust and SSO as entry controls, but add a distinct runtime authorisation layer that decides what the identity can do after login and how long the grant lasts.
- Log every credential checkout and revocation Capture grants, denials, session context and revocations in a system that SOC and IAM teams can review together.
Bottom line: The article frames zero standing privilege as the missing layer between login assurance and runtime control for human, workload and agentic identities.
Explore further
View Full Forum → | NHI Foundation Course → | Our Services → | Read the full analysis →
15/08/2026 6:17 pm
Zero standing privilege is the new control boundary for both human and machine identities. Once agents and workloads can operate continuously, the security question is no longer whether an identity can authenticate, but whether it should retain access after the task begins. That shifts the centre of gravity from login assurance to privilege duration, revocation and auditability. Practitioners should treat runtime access as the primary governance object, not an afterthought.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 90% of IT leaders say properly managing NHIs is essential for a successful zero-trust implementation, according to the Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
- Only 5.7% of organisations have full visibility into their service accounts, according to the Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How should teams govern non-human identities in AI-heavy environments?
A: Teams should govern non-human identities the same way they govern other privileged assets: assign ownership, minimise scope, rotate credentials regularly, and monitor for abnormal use. The key difference is speed. AI-driven workflows can exploit exposed access quickly, so detection and revocation must be automated and tied to lifecycle controls.
👉 Read our full editorial: Cisco Duo and Britive extend zero trust to human and agentic access