The Hidden Risks of Non-Human Identities and How to Mitigate Them Effectively

Read full article from Veza here: https://veza.com/blog/non-human-identity-security-a-practical-guide-to-mitigating-risk/?source=nhimg

In today’s multi-cloud, API-driven, and automation-heavy environments, Non-Human Identities (NHIs) have quietly become one of the largest, yet most overlooked, components of enterprise identity security. These service accounts, service principals, API keys, and machine identities orchestrate vital business processes, from automating cloud workloads to enabling AI model training. However, without proper visibility and governance, NHIs quickly evolve from enablers of productivity into persistent, high-risk attack vectors.

Unlike human identities, NHIs are often created with static permissions, left running in the background, and rarely undergo rigorous access reviews or lifecycle management. According to Veza’s State of Access report, NHIs now outnumber human identities by a staggering 17 to 1—and many of these identities operate without clear ownership, unrotated credentials, or oversight. This hidden complexity makes NHIs a prime target for attackers, a blind spot for auditors, and a growing compliance risk for enterprises.

To address these challenges, organizations must adopt a proactive, structured approach to Non-Human Identity (NHI) management that extends beyond traditional IAM frameworks. This practical guide outlines the critical steps for securing NHIs across their entire lifecycle:

1. Discovery - Identifying NHIs across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments is the first step. Veza’s intelligence-driven discovery engine enables security teams to uncover elusive NHIs—including service principals, RPA bots, and service accounts—ensuring comprehensive visibility.

2. Ownership Attribution - Assigning human owners to every NHI ensures accountability. By tying NHI ownership back to the organization’s Identity Provider (IdP), Veza automates ownership tracking, highlights orphaned NHIs, and prevents unmanaged identities from lingering in the environment.

3. Enforcing Least Privilege - NHIs are frequently over-permissioned due to ad-hoc creation practices. Veza simplifies entitlement analysis, enabling teams to right-size NHI permissions down to specific actions, reducing unnecessary access and tightening overall security.

4. Key & Credential Rotation - Stale secrets are one of the most common attack vectors. Veza proactively monitors credential usage, alerts for stale keys, and ensures key rotation practices are aligned with security policies.

5. Access Reviews - Veza streamlines NHI access reviews by embedding them into existing workflows, allowing human owners to verify whether NHIs still need access and ensuring compliance with regulatory frameworks like PCI DSS, HIPAA, and SOC 2.

6. Activity Monitoring & Dormant Permission Detection - Dormant NHIs and unused privileges represent silent but dangerous threats. Veza’s activity monitoring flags idle accounts and permissions, providing actionable insights to further enforce least privilege.

7. Role Recommendations & Proactive Provisioning - Veza empowers security teams to prevent over-permissioning at the source by suggesting appropriate, minimal roles during NHI creation. This ensures new identities are right-sized from day one.

By embedding these principles into everyday operations, organizations can shift from a reactive to a proactive NHI security posture—transforming NHIs from unmanaged risks into fully governed assets.

The Veza Access Platform offers a comprehensive solution that automates NHI discovery, ownership assignment, entitlement analysis, and continuous monitoring. With Veza, enterprises gain full visibility and control over their non-human identities, ensuring they grow securely alongside business operations.