Securing NHIs and Machine Identities: Crucial Differences and Best Practices

Read full article here: https://www.p0.dev/blog/non-human-identities-vs-machine-identities/?source=nhimg

Non-Human Identities (NHIs) are everywhere, but most teams still confuse them with machine identities. In reality, machine identities are just one type of NHI. The broader NHI category includes service accounts, bots, API keys, legal entities, and even animals with digital tags.

This article clears up the confusion between machine identities and other types of NHIs, showing why this distinction matters in cloud security.

While machine identities (like workloads, devices, and X.509 certs) are more technical in nature, non-machine NHIs—such as API keys or service accounts—often introduce greater risk due to hardcoded credentials, lack of ownership, and limited monitoring.

To secure your NHIs effectively:

• Start with full discovery and inventory

• Enforce least privilege and access policies

• Secure credentials with rotation and vaults

• Continuously monitor for identity threats using ITDR tools

As cloud infrastructure grows more complex, identity-first security for NHIs is no longer optional. Knowing what kind of non-human identities you're dealing with—and how to protect each one—is critical for avoiding breaches and improving governance at scale.