Applications, scripts, and services – and their associated credentials – have long been essential to IT systems, but as you’ve likely realized, their role has dramatically expanded in recent years, both in scale and complexity.
Unrelenting surges of non-human identities (NHIs) now manage critical operations across distributed and diverse enterprise environments everywhere, driving automation, optimizing resource allocation, and enabling faster product delivery for modern IT teams.
But how neglected is their security, especially compared to how meticulously human user identities are monitored and safeguarded?
As it turns out, as software workload identities multiply, so do the risks, even as outdated methods, manual practices, and careless habits still reign supreme. The 2024 Non-Human Identity Security Report from Aembit (no registration required) takes a clear look at how businesses are managing the rapid rise of NHIs – and where they’re falling short.
This report isn’t just another overview with stats, as eye-opening as they may be. It’s also designed to increase internal awareness, justify security budgets, and help influence strategic direction around a topic that’s likely being overlooked within your organization.
What Does the Data Show? Non-Human Identity Security Survey Findings
We won’t sugarcoat it: The report’s findings are clear – most organizations face an uphill climb.
For instance, 88.5% of respondents admit that their non-human IAM practices either lag behind or are merely on par with their user IAM efforts. This gap means attackers have opportunities, and many organizations are operating with limited visibility.
But it’s not just about maturity. The 38.9% of companies still relying on outdated methods like hard-coded secrets or manual credential sharing are creating vulnerabilities that could easily be closed with more modern practices.
Organizations are also struggling with managing NHIs across diverse IT settings. 35.6% cite managing identities in hybrid and multi-cloud environments as their top challenge, which leads to inconsistent access controls, security gaps, and increased risk of over-privileged or under-protected identities.
We also found a troubling lack of confidence in current methods. Only 19.6% of respondents express strong confidence in their non-human IAM systems. The rest either feel uncertain or outright insecure, which means there’s a lot of room for improvement.
But perhaps the most alarming statistic is that 23.5% of organizations aren’t sure what the biggest threat to their non-human identities even is. Blind spots like this leave critical workloads exposed to risks that can’t be mitigated if they go unnoticed.
The 2024 Non-Human Identity Security Report doesn’t simply rattle off a list of problems; it delivers actionable advice that will help you mature immediately — from automating key rotation to adopting secretless access methods. This report is essential reading for anyone serious about advancing their organization’s non-human IAM practices (which hopefully is you!).
