NHI 101: Best Practices for Securing Service Accounts

Read full article here: https://natoma.ai/blog/nhi-101-securing-service-accounts/?source=nhimg

Service accounts, non-human identities (NHIs) used by applications and services, remain one of the largest unmanaged risks in the enterprise. They power automation, integrations, and critical workloads, yet too often carry long-lived credentials and excessive privileges.

The result: attackers view them as golden entry points. According to recent research, over 80% of breaches in the past year involved compromised service accounts. Once exploited, these accounts can enable data theft, disruption of operations, or even full-system compromise.

With cloud adoption, DevOps, IoT, and AI driving exponential growth of NHIs, securing service accounts is no longer optional, it’s a top-priority security imperative.

Why Service Accounts Are Hard to Secure

1. Visibility Gaps
    
   • Most organizations lack a full inventory of service accounts.
   • Orphaned accounts remain active long after projects or services are decommissioned.

2. Overprivileged Access
   • Many accounts are granted broad or admin-level permissions “just to make things work.”
   • This fuels privilege sprawl and lateral movement risk.

3. Weak Credential Management
   • Hardcoded passwords in scripts and configs.
   • Static API keys valid for years.
   • Rare or manual rotation, if any at all.

4. Audit & Monitoring Challenges
   • Traditional tools focus on human accounts.
   • Service accounts’ repetitive behavior makes anomalies hard to detect.

5. Lifecycle Mismanagement
   • Accounts often survive beyond the service’s lifespan.
   • Ownership is unclear, leaving no accountable human steward.

How to Secure Service Accounts

1. Build a Complete Inventory

• Use automated discovery to surface all service accounts across cloud, SaaS, and on-prem systems.
• Don’t rely on spreadsheets, hidden accounts are common.

2. Enforce Least Privilege

• Regularly review and right-size permissions.
• Eliminate default admin rights.

3. Automate Credential Hygiene

• Rotate secrets automatically.
• Eliminate hardcoded and long-lived credentials with dynamic, short-lived alternatives.

4. Monitor & Audit Behavior

• Baseline service account activity.
• Flag anomalies such as access outside expected hours or excessive queries.

5. Clean Up Regularly

• Decommission accounts that are no longer in use.
• Ensure every account has a clear, responsible owner.

6. Train Teams

• Educate IT, DevOps, and developers not to share accounts or bypass controls “for convenience.”

The Pressure Is Mounting

• Regulatory Drivers: GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and other frameworks now expect strong controls over NHIs.
• Business Risk: Data breaches tied to unmanaged service accounts can cost millions in fines and reputation damage.
• Scale Challenge: With automation and AI multiplying NHIs at a 10x rate over human identities, unmanaged service accounts are a growing attack surface.

Final Word

Service accounts are the backbone of modern IT, but they also represent a major liability if left unsecured. By adopting Zero Trust for all identities, enforcing least privilege, and automating credential lifecycle management, organizations can close one of the most dangerous blind spots in enterprise security.

Securing NHIs, starting with service accounts, is no longer a back-office hygiene task. It is a strategic imperative to protect data, maintain compliance, and sustain customer trust.