Non-Human Identities (NHIs) encompass bots, AI agents, service accounts, and automation scripts that increasingly perform critical functions within enterprise IT environments. As organizations scale AI and cloud automation, NHIs proliferate exponentially, often outnumbering human users in cloud environments. Unlike human users, NHIs typically receive broad, standing access with static credentials that are seldom reviewed or revoked, creating persistent attack vectors. These credentials are frequently hardcoded in scripts or embedded in source code, lacking proper secrets management, logging, or monitoring. This creates a blind spot in traditional Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems, allowing attackers to exploit compromised NHIs to gain unauthorized access, move laterally, and persist undetected for extended periods. The threat is exacerbated by the absence of zero-trust enforcement for NHIs, resulting in over-permissioned access and unmanaged secrets sprawl. To address these risks, organizations must treat NHIs as first-class identities, applying zero-trust security principles including mandatory authentication and authorization, least-privilege access, role-based access control (RBAC), and time-bound credential expiration. Just-in-Time (JIT) access and ephemeral secrets reduce standing access risks by issuing short-lived tokens and automating credential rotation. Centralized secrets management and Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions, such as KeeperPAM®, enable secure storage, monitoring, and automatic rotation of credentials, ensuring auditability and compliance. By integrating these controls, enterprises can mitigate the expanded attack surface introduced by NHIs, preventing privileged account compromise and securing automated workflows. This shift is critical as NHIs become integral to modern enterprise infrastructure and cloud-native operations.

For European organizations, the exponential growth of NHIs significantly expands the attack surface, increasing the risk of credential theft, privilege escalation, and unauthorized access to sensitive systems and data. Given the widespread adoption of cloud services and automation in Europe, compromised NHIs could lead to large-scale data breaches, disruption of critical business processes, and regulatory non-compliance, especially under GDPR and other data protection laws. The lack of visibility and monitoring of NHIs can delay detection of breaches, allowing attackers to maintain persistence and conduct extensive lateral movement. This threat also jeopardizes the integrity of CI/CD pipelines and cloud infrastructure, potentially impacting service availability and operational continuity. Organizations in sectors such as finance, healthcare, telecommunications, and government are particularly vulnerable due to their reliance on automated systems and the sensitivity of their data. Failure to secure NHIs could result in reputational damage, financial losses, and legal penalties. The threat underscores the urgent need for European enterprises to modernize identity security frameworks to include non-human identities as a core component of their cybersecurity strategy.

European organizations should implement the following specific measures to mitigate risks associated with NHIs: 1) Extend zero-trust security models to include NHIs by enforcing strict authentication and authorization for all non-human identities. 2) Apply least-privilege principles using Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to ensure NHIs have only the minimum necessary permissions. 3) Implement Just-in-Time (JIT) access and ephemeral secrets to eliminate standing access, issuing short-lived tokens that automatically expire after use. 4) Automate credential rotation and avoid hardcoding secrets in scripts or source code by leveraging centralized secrets management solutions. 5) Deploy Privileged Access Management (PAM) tools capable of monitoring, auditing, and controlling privileged sessions for NHIs. 6) Establish continuous monitoring and logging of all NHI activities to detect anomalous behavior promptly. 7) Conduct regular security audits and reviews of NHI permissions and access patterns to identify and remediate over-permissioned accounts. 8) Integrate NHI security controls into existing IAM and cloud security frameworks to maintain unified governance. 9) Provide training and awareness for security teams on the unique risks posed by NHIs and the importance of managing them effectively. 10) Collaborate with cloud service providers to ensure visibility and control over NHIs within cloud environments. These targeted actions will reduce the attack surface, improve detection capabilities, and strengthen overall security posture against threats exploiting non-human identities.