The Hidden Risk in Financial Services: Securing Your Non-Human Identities
In today’s digital-first financial landscape, your institution faces a critical security challenge that many organizations overlook, until it’s too late. While your security teams focus on protecting human users, a far larger and more vulnerable attack surface continues to expand unchecked: Non-Human identities, also known as NHIs.
Securing the Invisible Threat
This surge of non-human identities creates a perfect storm of security challenges for financial institutions, which are bound by stringent compliance requirements like PCI DSS.
Non-human identities, including API Keys, Service Accounts, and OAuth applications, operate silently behind the scenes, often with extensive privileges and minimal oversight.
With each NHI potentially serving as an entry point for attackers, the absence of proper governance isn’t just a compliance oversight; it’s a security incident waiting to happen.
Why Traditional Security Falls Short for NHIs
Traditional identity governance was designed for human users with predictable behaviors and clear ownership. Non-human identities, however, operate differently:
- They often possess elevated privileges across critical systems
- Many lack clear ownership and accountability structures
- They frequently connect to third-party services outside your security perimeter
- Their credentials may never expire or rotate without proper controls
- They operate 24/7, making anomalous behavior harder to detect
These fundamental differences mean that conventional security approaches can’t effectively manage NHI risk and require more rigorous controls.
The Mounting Regulatory Pressure on Financial Institutions
As financial services increasingly rely on automated processes, APIs, and cloud services, regulatory frameworks are evolving to address the associated risks. PCI DSS 4.0.1, in particular, introduces more stringent requirements for:
- Comprehensive identity inventory and classification
- Continuous monitoring of all identities with privileged access
- Regular attestation and validation of access rights
- Automated detection of suspicious activities
- Verified rotation of secrets and credentials
Meeting these requirements manually for thousands of non-human identities isn’t just inefficient; it’s practically impossible without purpose-built automation.
Introducing Astrix: The Comprehensive NHI Security Solution
Astrix Security provides the first purpose-built platform that enables financial institutions to discover, secure, and govern the entire lifecycle of non-human identities. Astrix delivers four essential capabilities that ensure both robust security and continuous compliance:
1. Complete Visibility Across All Environments
You can’t secure what you can’t see. Astrix provides comprehensive discovery of all non-human identities across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments, revealing:
- Forgotten or orphaned service accounts
- Overprivileged API keys and OAuth applications
- Third-party connections with excessive access
- Machine identities operating without proper oversight
This visibility forms the foundation for effective risk reduction and compliance.
2. Automated Risk Management and Compliance
Astrix continuously maps your NHI landscape against key frameworks, including PCI DSS, NIST, and OWASP, enabling you to:
- Automatically identify compliance gaps in real-time
- Prioritize remediation based on risk level and regulatory impact
- Generate audit-ready reports tailored to specific frameworks
- Demonstrate continuous compliance with auditors and regulators
To learn more about how to ensure NHI compliance readiness with Astrix, click here.
3. Streamlined Governance and Lifecycle Management
Proper governance requires clear ownership and accountability. Astrix helps financial institutions:
- Assign and enforce ownership for every non-human identity
- Implement automated attestation workflows aligned with compliance requirements
- Safely decommission unnecessary or high-risk NHIs
- Manage secrets and credentials across their entire lifecycle
4. Proactive Threat Detection and Response
When a suspicious NHI activity occurs, every second counts. Astrix provides:
- Real-time monitoring and discovery, as well as anomalous NHI behavior
- Automated response to potential compromises
- Integration with existing security infrastructure
- Comprehensive audit trails for post-incident analysis
Customer Success Stories
Astrix is pivotal in NHI management for Mercury and Pagaya, leading fintech companies.
At Mercury, Astrix’s platform enabled rapid identification and remediation of security issues, transforming a potentially days-long process into a swift 30-minute resolution. Mercury’s CISO, Branden Wagne, highlighted that “Astrix democratizes security by allowing end-users to explain why a tool can access our environment, which is crucial for security teams.”
Similarly, Pagaya faced challenges with a vast number of NHIs, outnumbering human identities tenfold. Astrix provided continuous visibility and governance over these identities, strengthening Pagaya’s security posture. Yaniv Toledano, Pagaya’s CISO, noted, “Astrix strengthens our identity security program by providing us with continuous visibility and governance over thousands of NHIs.”
The Astrix Advantage for Financial Services
By implementing Astrix, financial institutions gain three critical advantages:
- Reduced Attack SurfaceDiscover and eliminate redundant and high-risk NHIs, applying least privilege principles across your entire identity landscape.
- Automated ComplianceTransform compliance requirements from a periodic scramble to a continuous, automated process with minimal manual effort.
- Controlled Third-Party RiskMap and manage all vendor-connected NHIs, enforcing zero trust principles without disrupting critical business operations.
Time for Action: Securing Your NHI Landscape
The question isn’t whether you can afford to address your NHI security—it’s whether you can afford not to. As attacks targeting machine identities continue to rise and regulatory requirements tighten, proactive governance of non-human identities isn’t just a security best practice; it’s a business imperative.
To learn more about how Astrix helps organizations with compliance and NHI security, visit astrix.security.
The post The Hidden Risk in Financial Services: Securing Your Non-Human Identities appeared first on Astrix Security.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Astrix Security authored by Danielle Guetta. Read the original post at: https://astrix.security/blog/the-hidden-risk-in-financial-services-securing-your-non-human-identities/
