NHI Management: The Missing Piece in Achieving SOC 2 Compliance

Read full article here: https://entro.security/blog/nhi-management-a-key-element-of-soc-2-compliance/?utm_source=nhimg

As automation and cloud adoption accelerate, non-human identities (NHIs)—such as service accounts, API keys, IoT devices, and automation bots—are now critical to business operations. These machine identities handle sensitive data, maintain service availability, and support automated workflows. Yet, they are often overlooked in traditional security programs, leaving dangerous gaps that can jeopardize SOC 2 compliance.

SOC 2, built around the five Trust Service Principles—Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy—requires organizations to safeguard all identities, not just human users. A compromised machine identity with elevated privileges can lead to unauthorized access, downtime, corrupted processes, or data leaks—directly violating SOC 2’s requirements.

To stay compliant, organizations must extend strong identity governance to NHIs by:

• Enforcing least privilege access for service accounts and automation tools.
• Using secrets vaults and encryption for API keys, tokens, and credentials.
• Automating credential rotation and lifecycle management.
• Monitoring and auditing machine identity activity for anomalies.
• Adopting Zero Trust security models to validate every access request.

Bottom line

Effective NHI management is no longer optional—it’s a non-negotiable requirement for SOC 2 compliance. By securing machine identities, organizations not only meet regulatory standards but also strengthen resilience against evolving cyber threats.