What Are Non-Human Identities ?
Non-human identities pertain to those that relate to devices, applications, services, or other entities instead of humans. These non-human identities need to be authenticated and authorized to access resources and perform actions just like human identities.
Types of Non-Human Identity
Service Accounts:
- Application Service Accounts: A way through which an application can interact with a database, API or any other service. Such accounts usually have permissions that are necessary for the functioning of the application.
- System Service Accounts: Used by operating systems to manage other hidden services and processes. These accounts are often privileged to perform system-level tasks due to their critical nature.
API Keys and Tokens:
- API Keys: Employed by the applications to verify and grant access to the APIs. Every key corresponds to an application and determines the access rights of the latter.
- OAuth Tokens: Used for safety, based on tokens, authorization of API interactions. OAuth tokens enable applications to use user’s information without having to use their password.
Bots and Automation Scripts:
- Chatbots: Computer programs that work with the user to deliver data or execute a task. They use identities to identify and communicate with systems in a secure manner.
- Automation Scripts: Programs involved in the tasks like data manipulation, data backup, and system diagnostics. These scripts require identities to get the needed resources.
IoT Devices:
- Consumer IoT Devices: Smart home devices, smart thermostats, video-Doorbell, security cameras, and smart wearables. Every device has an identity of its own and needs to establish a communication link with the other devices and systems in their network.
- Industrial IoT Devices: Automobiles and other vehicles used in factories and industries that require identity for data transfer and command reception.
Microservices:
- Service Mesh Components: In a microservices architecture, the different services have to be identified in order to interact with each other. These identities also prevent unauthorized cross-service communication while at the same time ensuring closed loop intra-service communication.
- Containers: Containers in microservices environments may be distinguishable using some id or name for each of them to access the necessary resources and communicate with other containers.
Non-human identities considerations for CIAM management
Security:
These non-human identities need to be well filtered to ensure that the customers’ information is not accessed by unauthorized personnel. This ranges from employing effective authentication, ensuring secured communication, and credentialed credentials, among others.
Access Control:
By applying least privilege principle, access control policies for non-human identities are set up in a way that grants the minimum access permissions necessary for the identity to perform its tasks. This reduces the chances of the information getting into the wrong hands.
Lifecycle Management:
Non-human identity management entails the following; identity creation, identity modification, and identification removal of the identities as and when required. Life cycle management ensures that none of these identity management systems are left idle and with a chance to be manipulated.
Compliance:
Non-human identities must be managed in compliance with the required rules and regulations including GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. This encompasses keeping of audit trails, putting in place data security measures and ensuring that customers gave consent for access to their information.
Monitoring and Auditing:
This way it is possible to identify the suspicious activities of non-human identities, as well as evaluate their correspondence to the existing security policies and guidelines. This entails monitoring of calls to the APIs, the devices and the access to the application.
User Experience:
Most of the non-human identities engage with the CIAM systems invisibly; however, their administration is vital for a smooth and safe experience. For instance, making IoT devices or customer-facing applications to operate effectively and securely improves the level of satisfaction among the consumers.
Understanding the differences between human identities and non-human identities
Human identities, controlled by IT or identity teams, are present when people are using organizational systems with logins such as usernames and passwords, which can be easily controlled and protected. On the other hand, non-human identities (NHIs) which are invented by the software developers for applications and systems they develop utilize the credentials such as API keys and tokens.
These NHIs work autonomously, and it can become a problem if they do not comprehend or cannot control their interactions with digital content. Therefore, visibility, secure storage and rotation of credentials, and adequate security training for developers were deemed critical in NHIs management. Business strategies are crucial for any system stability and effectiveness when it comes to security.
Why do we need non-human identity management?
- Non-human identities (NHIs) are beneficial to the operations as they enable tasks to be performed and systems to be accessed without the involvement of human beings.
- When these identities are being managed correctly, such processes are optimized and are less prone to errors in the systems that are frequently automated, including DevOps, cloud computing, and IoT.
- Laws such as GDPR, HIPAA and SOX require strict measures on data and system usage and this include usage by artificial entities.
- The number of NHIs rises as organizations develop and their IT systems become more elaborate.
- Managing the growth of a company’s IT infrastructure is a herculean task; it can only be done effectively and securely, while meeting compliance requirements.
- NHIs are involved in performing crucial tasks that are vital for continuity of business, and proper management helps to guarantee the steadiness and security of their functioning, which in turn preserves the stability of the services provided.
Conclusion
NHIs are an essential component of the IT systems of organizations and thus, their management is crucial in order to enhance the efficiency of the processes and reduce the occurrence of errors as well as to meet the regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX. With the growth of the number of NHIs and the development of more complex IT structures, efficient and secure management becomes critical for preserving the continuity of business and the reliability and safety of services. Acknowledging the importance of NHIs and maintaining proper management significantly helps organizations adapt to the dynamic technological environment and secure their data and systems.
