Stay Ahead with Proactive Non-Human Identity Management
How Does Proactive Non-Human Identity Management Keep You Ahead?
Cybersecurity, for years, has been placing humans at the center of the identity universe. But have you considered the indispensable role of Non-Human Identities (NHIs) in your organization’s security matrix? By applying proactive NHI management, you can not only mitigate risks but also enhance efficiency, thereby ensuring your organization stays ahead.
What Exactly Are Non-Human Identities?
NHIs, or machine identities, are digital credentials employed in cybersecurity. These identities, each with their unique ‘Secret’ – be it an encrypted password, token, or key – are granted permissions by a destination server. Picture the Secret as your passport and the permissions as your visa. Managing NHIs involves safeguarding both these identities (the ‘tourist’) and their access credentials (the ‘passport’), while continually monitoring their behaviors within a network or system.
Why Are NHIs and Their Management So Important?
The sheer amount of data being shared and accessed is staggering. From financial services and healthcare to travel and DevOps, organizations across diverse industries must ensure that they securely manage these NHIs. The complexity not only lies in managing these machine identities but also in securing their Secrets across their lifecycle—from discovery and classification to threat detection and remediation.
The Power of Proactive NHIs Management
Why react when you can be proactive? Proactive NHI management is about staying one step ahead. It equips organizations with the necessary tools to not just respond to security threats, but to anticipate and prevent them. A comprehensive NHI management approach can reap several benefits:
– Reduced Risk: Proactive NHI management identifies and mitigates security risks, thereby lowering the likelihood of breaches and data leaks.1
– Improved Compliance: By enforcing policies and providing audit trails, it aids in meeting regulatory requirements.
– Increased Efficiency: Automated NHI and secrets management free up the security team’s time for strategic initiatives.
– Enhanced Visibility and Control: It provides a centralized view for access management and governance.2
– Cost Savings: By automating secrets rotation and NHIs decommissioning, it reduces operational costs.
While many organizations have been focusing on human identities, they must not overlook the importance of NHIs. Companies that are able to adopt proactive NHI management will be leading the charge. To thrive, organizations need to evolve and adapt and, most importantly, stay ahead of the game. That’s what proactive NHI management aims to deliver.
Unpacking the Elements of Proactive Non-Human Identity Management
Let’s delve into the critical elements of proactive Non-Human Identity (NHI) Management. Broadly, NHI management encompasses a holistic and lifecycle-based approach to ensuring the security of machine identities and their respective secrets. It holds the potential to bridge gaps caused by disconnection between security and R&D teams—often seen in numerous organizations—by promoting the creation of a secure cloud environment.
While the aforementioned points form the broader strokes of proactive NHI management, at its very core, it further consists of key pillars that serve to organize and strengthen the methodology. These are primarily the elements of Discovery, Classification, Tracking, and Remediation.
The Cornerstones of Non-Human Identity Management
1. Discovery: Adequately managing NHIs starts with discovering them. Since NHIs are typically numerous in an organization, their discovery becomes a starting point establishing control. Effective discovery includes identifying the NHIs, their permissions, and associated Secrets across networks.3
2. Classification: Following the discovery, classification of NHIs sets preconditions for subsequent management steps. Categorized based on their nature, sensitivity, and risk level, classification plays a pivotal role in streamlining the process of tracking and remediation.
3. Tracking: At any given point, organizations must be aware of the ‘status’ and ‘behavior’ of their NHIs. The ‘tracking’ stage provides insights into ownership, permissions, usage patterns, and potential vulnerabilities, playing a crucial role in ongoing security assessments.4
4. Remediation: The final pillar, remediation, involves timely action on potential vulnerabilities and threats while ensuring minimal impact on business operations.
The Strategic Significance of Proactive NHI Management
While every corner of the media is minutely tracking the exponential increase in data breaches, organizations often overlook NHIs as a potential attack surface. NHIs, unlike human identities, are careers of automated processes, system-to-system activities, data flows, and communications. Given their ‘non-human’ nature, tracing their activities becomes particularly challenging.
This is where proactive and holistic NHI management comes into play. From critical financial services to evolving sectors like travel and healthcare, proactive NHI management is emerging as an instrumental force in safeguarding the data and operations of businesses.5
Staying One Step Ahead with Proactive NHI Management
Being proactive is more than just a security measure—it’s a strategic choice. It helps organizations to anticipate, and thereby prevent potential security threats. By positioning proactive NHI management at the heart of their cybersecurity strategy, organizations can not only prevent security breaches but also elevate their operational efficiency, improve regulatory compliance, and save considerable costs.
The importance of NHIs should not be underestimated by an organization, much less overlooked. By implementing proactive NHI management, organizations can stay ahead of the pack and lead the charge.
The conversation surrounding NHI Management and its intricate components doesn’t end here. Stay tuned for upcoming posts that delve deeper into this intriguing topic.
The post Stay Ahead with Proactive Non-Human Identity Management appeared first on Entro.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Entro authored by Alison Mack. Read the original post at: https://entro.security/stay-ahead-with-proactive-non-human-identity-management/
