NHI placement in hybrid environments: what teams are missing

TL;DR: Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are multiplying non-human identities, with Gartner cited in the source article as forecasting nearly 45% growth in machine identities over two years, while mismanaged service accounts, API keys, and pipeline tokens widen the attack surface. The governance problem is not just volume, but inconsistent placement, visibility, and privilege control across machine identities.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Unosecur: Securing non-human identities in hybrid environments, Part 1

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should security teams govern service accounts in hybrid environments?

A: Security teams should treat service accounts as governed assets, not convenience credentials.

Q: Why do API keys and service accounts create different risk patterns?

A: API keys usually expose integration access, while service accounts often sit deeper in infrastructure and can inherit broader permissions.

Q: What breaks when machine identities are not inventoried across cloud and on-prem systems?

A: Without a complete inventory, teams cannot see where credentials live, which services depend on them, or who is responsible for removing them.

Practitioner guidance

• Create a placement inventory for every non-human identity Map service accounts, API keys, container identities, pipeline tokens, and device IDs to the systems they authenticate, the data they can reach, and the team responsible for them.
• Separate shared service accounts into workload-specific identities Replace reused credentials with workload-specific accounts where possible, then document ownership so revocation and offboarding can happen without guessing which service still depends on the account.
• Move hardcoded secrets out of code and into managed controls Scan repositories and CI/CD systems for embedded credentials, then migrate them to a secrets manager or managed identity pattern with explicit rotation and expiry handling.

What's in the full article

Unosecur's full blog covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• Examples of each NHI type in cloud, on-premises, CI/CD, container, and IoT environments
• The article's own incident examples showing how exposed keys and shared service accounts are exploited
• Practical placement guidance for teams deciding where machine identities should live and who should manage them

👉 Read Unosecur's blog on securing non-human identities in hybrid environments →

NHI placement in hybrid environments: what teams are missing?

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