The significance of enterprise secrets management has emerged as a vital element in fostering a robust governance framework for non-human identities (NHIs) within organizations. As businesses adapt to the evolving digital landscape, the focus on securing these identities is paramount to safeguarding entire ecosystems.
Traditionally, identity and access management (IAM) has primarily centered on human users. Organizations have honed processes for onboarding new employees, granting necessary access, and safely offboarding individuals, grounded in established best practices. IAM tooling vendors support these governance measures, underscoring their importance in maintaining security.
In the present landscape, NHIs drastically outnumber human identities, with current estimates suggesting a ratio of 50 to one, and projections indicating this could rise to 100 to one by 2025. This growing prevalence emphasizes the urgent need for enhanced NHI management to combat the increasing occurrences of security breaches attributed to inadequate machine identity management, particularly around credential safeguarding. As a result, many IT leaders are actively exploring what constitutes an effective governance model for NHIs and how best to implement it across their organizations.
Credential management is a critical area within NHI governance. Every non-human identity requires a method of authentication, and establishing governance protocols for managing these credentials is essential. The Secrets Management Maturity Model illustrates how organizations can progress from having no secrets security in place to adopting advanced enterprise vault technology, which automates secrets detection across all phases of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), including at a developer’s workstation. The most advanced organizations now strive to eliminate traditional credentials, pursuing alternative authentication methods that enhance security while streamlining processes.
Organizations in the initial stages of secrets management often lack comprehensive controls, resorting to basic methods such as plain text ENV files or hardcoded credentials within source code. As they evolve, a broader recognition of credential management issues leads to increased adoption of secret management tools integrated into cloud services, ensuring encrypted storage and programmatic access. Despite these advancements, the management of credential rotation and remediation efforts remains largely manual and reactive.
As maturity increases, centralized vault solutions such as HashiCorp Vault or CyberArk’s Conjure become essential for managing secrets efficiently. At this stage, organizations frequently prioritize automation, especially concerning credential rotation and developer involvement in remediation processes.
While understanding secrets management maturity provides valuable insights, it does not encapsulate the full spectrum of NHI governance. Companies must consider the lifecycle, ownership, and risk management of NHIs holistically. A foundational step involves meticulous inventory management to map the secrets present within an organization, identifying their origins and usage patterns.
Establishing a centralized observability system for tracking NHIs, ideally through an enterprise secrets vault, enhances monitoring capabilities. An effective management platform can log when an NHI’s credential is created, rotated, and utilized, aiding in comprehensive audits during the credential decommissioning process.
Addressing the question of risk ownership for NHIs remains a complex task. Determining who within the organization should maintain oversight of NHIs—be it developers, DevOps teams, or the security department—varies from one organization to another. Regardless of who assumes this responsibility, success hinges on having access to accurate data and insights.
Leading organizations are increasingly incorporating NHIs into their IAM frameworks. This shift signals an industry-wide acknowledgment of the dual necessity for robust corporate governance and efficient risk management strategies. The task of understanding and optimally managing the global lifecycle of NHIs mandates collaboration across teams, as the significance of this undertaking surpasses what Security, IT, or DevOps can manage independently.
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Author Bio
GitGuardian Security Advocate – Dwayne has been a Developer Relations professional since 2016, having engaged with the tech community since 2005, dedicating his efforts to knowledge sharing.
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