Non-human employees are becoming the future of cybersecurity, and enterprises need to prepare accordingly. As organizations scale Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud automation, there is exponential growth in Non-Human Identities (NHIs), including bots, AI agents, service accounts and automation scripts. In fact, 51% of respondents in ConductorOne’s 2025 Future of Identity Security Report said the security of NHIs is now just as important as that of human accounts. Yet, despite their presence in modern organizations, NHIs often operate outside the scope of traditional Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems.
This growing dependence on non-human users creates new attack surfaces that organizations must urgently prepare for. Without full visibility and proper oversight, NHIs may have over-permissioned standing access and static credentials, making them valuable targets for cybercriminals. To secure NHIs with the same precision as human identities, organizations must develop modern security strategies that incorporate zero-trust security, least-privilege access, automated credential rotation and secrets management. By modernizing their strategies, organizations can work to reduce security risks and prevent privileged account compromise, regardless of whether a user is human.
Why non-human identities are a growing cybersecurity risk
Unlike human users, NHIs and their activity typically go unnoticed, even though they hold powerful access to sensitive systems. NHIs are frequently granted broad, standing access across infrastructure, cloud environments and CI/CD pipelines. Once provisioned, NHI access is rarely reviewed or revoked, making it a prime target for cybercriminals. The main security risks associated with NHIs include credentials hardcoded into scripts, secrets embedded in source code and a lack of visibility into how NHIs are used. Often, there is little to no logging or monitoring of NHIs, leaving compromised machine credentials vulnerable to exploitation, allowing cybercriminals to go undetected for weeks or even months. In cloud environments, non-human users significantly outnumber human users, expanding attack surfaces and introducing many more security vulnerabilities. When NHIs are overlooked in security audits or excluded from traditional IAM policies, security teams risk allowing the convenience of automation to turn into a major blind spot.
How to secure non-human access with zero-trust principles
To reduce NHI-related security risks, organizations must enforce zero-trust security for every identity by treating bots, AI agents, and service accounts equally to humans. The key ways to secure non-human access with zero-trust security include:
- Apply zero trust to machine users: Every NHI must be authenticated and authorized, with only the minimum necessary access granted. All activity should be logged, monitored, and auditable to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
- Enforce least-privilege access: Assign Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC) and set time-based credential expiration policies to ensure NHIs access only what they need, when they need it.
- Leverage Just-in-Time (JIT) access and ephemeral secrets: Eliminate standing access by replacing static credentials with short-lived API tokens. Additionally, automate credential rotation after a task is completed or on a set schedule.
Implementing some of these practices can significantly reduce exposure for NHIs, making them auditable and manageable at scale. For example, having API tokens auto-expire after deployment minimizes the risk of those secrets being exploited. The same goes for service accounts that request access only when needed for a specific task, rather than maintaining standing access. By operationalizing these practices, organizations can effectively govern NHIs with the same level of control as human users in any zero-trust architecture.
Managing secrets and privileged access at scale
Secrets like API keys, tokens and SSH credentials are crucial for automation and NHIs, but without proper management, they introduce significant security vulnerabilities. To maintain control over secrets and privileged access, organizations must know who or what accessed which resources and when. Without such detailed insight, unmanaged secrets may sprawl across environments when hardcoded in scripts, stored insecurely in plaintext or shared with no tracking or expiration.
Luckily, organizations can use secrets management and Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions to centralize control over both secrets and privileged access. Solutions like KeeperPAM® provide a zero-trust, zero-knowledge architecture that secures credentials, monitors privileged sessions and automatically rotates credentials across cloud infrastructures. As a unified solution, KeeperPAM integrates enterprise password management, secrets management and endpoint management, helping protect both human and non-human users equally.
Identity security must extend beyond human identities
As enterprise infrastructure grows more modern and automated, NHIs are now a permanent part of the attack surface. To defend against more sophisticated cyber attacks, organizations must treat non-human employees as first-class identities — securing and governing them just like human employees. Every service account, script and AI agent must be secured and continuously monitored to ensure they are granted appropriate access to necessary data and systems. To stay ahead of NHI-related cyber threats, organizations should embed zero-trust principles across all access layers for both humans and machines.
Note: This article was expertly written and contributed by Ashley D’Andrea, Content Writer at Keeper Security.
