As organizations shift towards cloud-native architectures, automation, and zero-trust security models, Non-Human Identity (NHI) exploitation has emerged as the #1 identity threat in cybersecurity. These identities such as APIs, service accounts, machine identities, cloud workloads, and cryptographic credentials, outnumber human identities and often have high-privilege access, making them a prime target for attackers.

Why Non-Human Identity is the #1 Identity Threat

1. NHIs Are Very Easy to Discover and Compromise - NHIs are surprisingly easy to discover and compromise, often due to weak configurations and poor identity management across systems and networks.
2. A Gateway to Supply Chain Attacks - NHIs are increasingly targeted in supply chain attacks, where compromised NHIs within third-party vendors provide attackers with backdoor access to enterprises.
3. Silent Lateral Movement and Persistence - Attackers can exploit compromised NHIs for lateral movement within networks, with only 78% of organizations confident in their ability to stop such movements using compromised credentials.

As cyber threats evolve, securing NHIs is no longer optional, it’s critical. Organizations must prioritize NHI security strategies, enforce strict access controls, and monitor for misuse to stay ahead of modern cyber threats.

As digital transformation accelerates across industries, organizations are increasingly reliant on Non-Human Identities (NHIs) to automate processes, scale operations, and connect various systems. They perform critical roles in everything from cloud infrastructure to business operations. As organizations deploy more of these entities, NHIs now outnumber human identities at an unprecedented scale, often by 25 to 50 times.

While this shift has enabled greater efficiency and scalability, it has also introduced a wide range of cybersecurity risks. NHIs are frequently less monitored, poorly managed, and more vulnerable than human identities, making them attractive targets for cyberattacks.

Why They Outnumber Human Identities?

1. Automation & AI - AI-driven automation powers modern businesses, with bots and scripts handling repetitive tasks and complex processes. Each requires its own identity, vastly outpacing human users.
2. Cloud & Microservices - Cloud applications use microservices architectures, breaking apps into smaller, independent services—each needing credentials— leading to exponential NHI growth.
3. DevOps & Containerization - Tools like Kubernetes, Docker, and CI/CD pipelines rely on numerous service accounts and automated credentials, further expanding the NHI landscape.

As automation, cloud adoption, and DevOps scale, NHIs proliferate exponentially, establishing themselves as the primary identity vector within modern IT ecosystems.

The rapid expansion of Non-Human Identities (NHIs) across modern enterprises has created a hyper-fragmented ecosystem, making security gaps harder to detect and mitigate. NHIs exist across legacy on-prem environments, GenAI & LLMs, API-Based Service Architecture and hybrid-cloud environments, introducing challenges in visibility, access control, lifecycle management, and security monitoring.

1. Legacy On-Prem Environments - Traditional enterprises rely on Active Directory (AD), LDAP-based identity stores, and hardcoded service accounts, which are difficult to monitor.
2. Generative AI & Large Language Models -
   AI-driven applications introduce new NHIs, including:
   • AI Model API Keys & Tokens – Authenticate access to AI models like OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini.
   • AI Agent Identities – Bots and autonomous systems use NHIs for SaaS and cloud access.
3. API-Based Architectures
   APIs drive modern applications, using NHIs such as:
   • OAuth Tokens & API Keys – Authenticate internal and third-party services.
   • JWT & mTLS Certificates – - Secure microservices and encrypted communications.
4. Hybrid-Cloud Environments
   A hybrid-cloud strategy demands NHIs for automation and security across platforms:
   • Service Accounts & API Tokens – Automate cloud provisioning and workload access.
   • Secrets & Certificates – Encrypt workloads and secure communication.

This has led to an exponential increase in NHIs, hyper-fragmentation, making it very hard to implement controls over this very complex landscape.

Non-Human Identities (NHIs) are now the largest attack surface in modern IT environments. With NHIs outnumbering human identities by 25-50x, they play a critical role in cloud services, APIs, AI-driven automation, and DevOps pipelines. However, security controls for NHIs remain extremely weak, leaving them highly vulnerable to exploitation.

Key Weaknesses in NHI Security Controls

1. Inadequate Lifecycle Management - The absence of proper lifecycle management for NHIs poses major security risks. Many NHIs are set up without clear expiration dates or decommissioning plans, resulting in outdated identities that can easily be targeted by attackers.
2. Excessive Privileges – NHIs are generally highly privileged accounts, 97% of NHIs have excessive privileges, increasing unauthorized access and broadening the attack surface.
3. Lack of Environment Segregation – In many cases, the same NHI is used in both production and non-production environments, or the same logical NHI has the same password across each environment, increasing the risk of lateral movement.
4. Plain-Text / Unencrypted Credentials – Organisations often find that many NHIs have been hard-coded into source code repositories (and other places) and can therefore be easily discovered by both external and internal threat actors.
5. Lack of Credential Rotation – 71% of non-human identities are not rotated within the recommended time frames, increasing the risk of compromise over time.

Non-Human Identities (NHIs) have become a prime target for attackers, and for a good reason. As organizations adopt cloud technologies, automation, and API-driven workflows, NHIs, such as service accounts, API keys, and machine identities, now make up most identities in digital environments. These identities often operate with elevated privileges and limited monitoring, making them attractive to cybercriminals looking for high-value targets with minimal detection risk.

Why Attackers Target NHIs?

1. Broad Access Privileges - NHIs are often given broad or excessive access privileges to perform their tasks. In many cases, these identities are granted far more access than they need, which violates the principle of least privilege. This makes NHIs extremely valuable to attackers, as compromising just one identity can unlock access to multiple systems, databases, or cloud environments. Attackers target NHIs knowing that a single breach can open doors to a much wider attack surface.
2. Undetectable Behavior - Unlike human users, NHIs don’t follow predictable patterns of behavior, such as logging in from specific locations or times of day. This makes detecting suspicious activity or breaches significantly harder. Attackers know this and often target NHIs because these machine identities can operate without triggering traditional anomaly detection systems.

Over the past few years, Non-Human Identities (NHIs) have become one of the most vulnerable entry points for cyberattacks, playing a key role in some of the most damaging breaches. These machine identities such as service accounts, API keys, and tokens, often operate behind the scenes with elevated privileges and minimal monitoring, making them prime targets for cybercriminals. Below are several detailed examples of high-profile breaches where NHIs were directly exploited.

1. BeyondTrust Breach
   What Happened: On December 2, 2024, BeyondTrust, a leading cybersecurity solutions provider specializing in Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Secure Remote Access, identified anomalous activities affecting certain customer instances of its Remote Support Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. Following an in-depth investigation, it was revealed that a compromised API key had been exploited, leading to unauthorized access and the potential for escalated attacks on affected customer environments.
2. Schneider Electric Breach
   What Happened: In November 2024, one of the leading companies in energy and automation solutions ‘Schneider Electric’, confirmed a significant cybersecurity incident including unauthorized access to its internal project management system. The attacker exploited exposed credentials to gain access to Schneider Electric’s Jira server and made use of MiniOrange REST API to extract a 40GB of sensitive data.

For a more detailed breaches involving Non-Human Identities, read our full report on 40 major breaches.

As Non-Human Identities (NHIs) like service accounts, APIs, and certificates become integral to IT operations, they introduce regulatory challenges. Laws like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX require strict identity management and data security, and failing to manage NHIs properly can lead to compliance violations, fines, and reputational damage.

Key Regulatory Challenges for NHIs

1. Data Privacy Violations - NHIs often have access to sensitive data and can expose personal information, violating privacy laws like GDPR. A mismanaged NHI could inadvertently process or share protected data, leading to significant fines.
2. Auditing and Accountability -NHIs must be accounted for in system logs and compliance audits. Failing to track their activity risks breaching requirements under SOX, inviting penalties.
3. Failure to Meet Identity Management Standards - Frameworks like NIS and ISO/IEC 27001 apply to all identities, human or non-human. Overlooking NHIs in identity management can pose equal or greater risks.

Regulatory Risks of NHI Mismanagement

• Operational Disruptions - Major regulatory violations can lead to operational shutdowns or suspensions imposed by governing bodies.
• Fines and Penalties - Mismanagement of NHIs can result in significant fines imposed by regulatory bodies, depending on the severity of the violation and its impact on customers.
• Reputational Damage - Trust is difficult to rebuild after a regulatory breach, and organizations face long-term reputational harm.

When it comes to Non-Human Identities (NHIs), Compromises can happen in the blink of an eye, literally. Attackers don’t need hours or even minutes to gain control. The reality is, in many cases, it takes less than one minute for a skilled attacker to compromise an NHI, often setting off a chain reaction that can lead to a much bigger breach.

The Speed of NHI Compromise

Whether they are service accounts, bots, or APIs, NHIs are crucial to keeping systems running. But their sheer numbers, lack of direct oversight, and weak security make them easy prey. In as little as 60 seconds, an attacker can break into a vulnerable NHI, using weak credentials, misconfigurations, or outdated software.

The Consequences of Fast NHI Compromise

When an NHI is compromised, the damage extends far beyond that single identity. Since NHIs often have broad access to sensitive data and critical systems, a compromise can escalate quickly. Attackers can use compromised NHIs to gain access to databases, manipulate services, or launch further attacks across the network.

What Can Be Done?

1. Continuous Monitoring - Track NHI activity for anomalies or unexpected access requests.
2. Limit Permissions - Enforce least privilege, restricting NHI access to necessary resources.
3. Review and Retire Orphaned Identities - Regularly audit NHIs and retire unused ones.
4. Credential Management - Use strong credential management, including rotation, secret vaults, and eliminating hardcoded credentials.