Insights from NHI Experts
This month, we kicked off our Ask Me Anything: NHI Security series with an interactive session led by our NHI experts, Michael Silva and Chris Hughes. The event featured live discussions around Non-Human Identity (NHI) challenges, practical solutions, and thought-provoking questions from the audience.
Among the standout topics was the question:
Apart from posture management, context, and NHI visibility, what are the additional features or future roadmap of NHI?
Michael began by discussing the importance of moving beyond just visibility and problem identification when tackling the NHI space. He emphasized the need to understand the behavior and context of non-human identities to take appropriate actions and implement mechanisms to prevent potential issues. As the market evolves over the next few years, these solutions will become more defined, whether customer-driven or vendor-based.
Chris followed by highlighting the role of governance in managing NHIs, noting that traditional human-driven processes are not scalable across the vast number of identities and environments. He stressed that tools will be essential to achieve governance aspirations, enabling organizations to implement policies and processes effectively.
Another key question that sparked discussion was:
What are your thoughts on secrets management vs. identity management?
Michael addressed the question of whether secrets are being relabeled as non-human identities (NHIs) by explaining that while all identities are secrets, not all secrets are identities. He highlighted that NHIs and secrets overlap significantly but also have distinct characteristics. For example, some NHIs cannot be vaulted because their authentication protocols generate secrets dynamically. Additionally, there are situations where secrets are shared externally, making it challenging to manage them in traditional vaults. Michael emphasized the importance of tools that can monitor both internal and external secret usage to safeguard against misuse.
Chris added that while there is significant overlap between NHIs and secrets, the two must be distinguished. He pointed out that the industry often hyper-focuses on secrets without addressing the broader landscape of NHIs, which can hinder progress in solving identity security challenges. He called for greater clarity within the industry to delineate these concepts and adapt to the evolving needs of NHI security.
Looking Ahead
Don’t miss the next installment of our Ask Me Anything: NHI Security series, happening in February. Each month, we’ll dive into more of your burning questions about Non-Human Identities, offering insights from leading industry experts.
Stay tuned for updates and registration details!