Non-Human Identity Security vs. Service Account Management: What’s the Difference?

The concept of non-human identity is rapidly gaining awareness. A year ago, mentioning the term might have drawn blank stares or a joke about aliens or robots. Today, it sparks serious discussions about securing the access rights of mission-critical software within an organization’s infrastructure.

At the same time, an interesting pattern has emerged: Many security professionals have grown to equate non-human identity with service account management.

It’s true that many approaches to managing non-human identities focus on improving visibility into service accounts. But is that the full scope? Is non-human identity management  just service account management with a fancier name, or does it represent a more fundamental shift?

Rather than just offering an opinion, let’s break down both perspectives and let you decide.

Argument: Non-Human Identity Security Is Just Service Account Management

1) Underlying Similarities

 Non-human identity (NHI) security manages identities not tied to human users – applications, services, bots, and devices. Traditionally this has been done through service accounts, which are created for these non-human entities to interact with systems.  Managing them involves assigning permissions, rotating credentials, and enforcing secure usage. NHI security largely seeks to achieve the same goals.

2) Scope Overlap

Service account management has addressed non-human identities for years, particularly in traditional IT environments. While non-human identities may interact with multiple service accounts or share them, the core security principles – access control, security enforcement, and lifecycle management – remain unchanged. NHI management can be seen as an evolution of these practices in more complex environments.

3) Operational Practices

The key tasks in NHI security – provisioning, decommissioning, auditing, and compliance – mirror those of service account management. Whether a single non-human identity uses multiple service accounts or multiple identities share one, the same access controls, monitoring, and security measures apply.

Counterargument: Non-Human Identity Management Goes Beyond Service Account Management

At first glance, it’s easy to see why non-human identity management and service account management are often conflated. Both involve managing access for non-human entities, securing credentials, and enforcing policies. However, treating NHI security as merely an extension of service account management overlooks key advancements in how organizations must handle non-human identities.

1) A Broader Scope

NHI security isn’t just about service accounts – it manages the lifecycle and access control of non-human identities themselves. This includes cases where non-human identities (e.g., microservices, internal applications, third-party applications, and IoT devices) need to securely communicate with one another. Unlike traditional service account management, these interactions often require dynamic, context-aware access management. Non-human identities can be ephemeral and mobile, creating challenges beyond static service account management.

2) Access Management Between Non-Human Identities

• Fine-Grained Permissions: NHI security allows precise access control based on context. A microservice may need access to another service only under specific conditions – such as time-bound or role-based access – reducing the risk of excessive privileges.
• Dynamic Trust Relationships: Unlike service account management, which typically relies on static permissions, NHI security supports conditional trust relationships. For example, an API might grant access only when specific conditions are met, enabling more adaptive security controls.

3) Security, Automation, and Auditing

NHI security introduces advanced technologies with broader implications

• Protection: NHI security solutions often use cryptographic methods such as automated key rotation, short-lived certificates, and ephemeral tokens to enhance security, reducing reliance on static credentials.
• Automation: NHI security integrates with automation tools to dynamically manage identities and access rights. In a microservices architecture, it can provision and revoke identities in real time, improving security and efficiency.
• Auditing: NHI security provides detailed audit trails, tracking every access request across multiple service accounts and systems. This enhances compliance and incident response capabilities.

4) Impact on DevOps and CI/CD Pipelines

• CI/CD Integration: In modern DevOps workflows, automated builds, tests, and deployments require temporary, dynamic access to various services. NHI security automates identity creation and revocation, ensuring permissions exist only as long as needed, improving both security and efficiency.

5) Integration with Identity and Access Management (IAM)

NHI security aligns with broader IAM strategies, integrating non-human identity governance with human identity management. Traditional service account management often operates in silos, lacking the governance required to manage complex relationships between non-human identities.

6) Regulatory and Compliance Considerations

Organizations face increasing compliance requirements that demand granular control over non-human identities. NHI security provides detailed auditing and access management capabilities that exceed traditional service account management, particularly in highly regulated industries.

So, What’s the Verdict?

While NHI security and service account management share similarities, NHI represents a more advanced approach. The key difference lies in how non-human identities interact, the complexity of access relationships, and the security measures required to manage them. NHI security’s impact on automation, auditing, and modern DevOps workflows underscores why it has evolved beyond traditional service account management.