Every time a mobile application retrieves live weather data or a server pulls code from a repository, a machine identity executes authentication. While human user accounts typically dominate cybersecurity discussions, non-human actors now significantly outnumber employees on corporate networks.
Today, organizations manage more than 114,000 internal certificates on average, according to “Trends in PKI Security: A Global Study of Trends, Challenges & Business Impact,” a 2026 research report by the Ponemon Institute.
The Ponemon survey also found that:
- 56% have experienced a certificate-related outage
- 46% feel confident in their PKI security posture
- 47% believe their PKI can scale to meet future needs
As digital transformation accelerates, managing these automated connections has become a critical business imperative. In this blog, I’ll examine the rapid expansion of machine identities, the specific vulnerabilities they present, and the essential steps organizations must implement to secure them against sophisticated attacks.
The Proliferation of Machine Identities
A machine identity is any non-human entity that must authenticate to access network resources. Humans use usernames and passwords, whereas machines use digital certificates, cryptographic keys, and API tokens for authentication.
These common examples demonstrate how extensively modern networks depend on these entities:
- APIs: Application Programming Interfaces connect disparate software systems, enabling cloud services, databases, and third-party tools to exchange data efficiently.
- IoT devices: The Internet of Things encompasses everything from smart factory sensors to connected security cameras, all of which require secure authentication to communicate with central servers.
- Containers and microservices: In DevOps environments, containers are ephemeral and deploy and terminate rapidly. Each instance requires an identity to interact securely with other network components.
The transition to automation, cloud-native architectures, and microservices has led to an exponential increase in non-human entities. This explosive growth frequently exceeds an organization’s capacity to track and manage them effectively.
In fact, the Ponemon survey found that while 61% of respondents say their organization regularly assesses PKI security, most do so manually or via penetration testing. Only one-third of these assessments are conducted weekly or biweekly.
The Machine Identity Threat Landscape
Malicious actors systematically target non-human access points because organizations often lack comprehensive visibility into them. However, IT teams rarely possess accurate inventories of active SSH keys, API tokens, or certificates across their infrastructure.
Malicious actors exploit this visibility gap through multiple attack vectors. Developers inadvertently expose hardcoded secrets in public code repositories. Certificates expire without monitoring, creating security gaps. Attackers identify abandoned API keys from decommissioned projects. These credentials rarely trigger multi-factor authentication (MFA), thereby allowing attackers to gain silent, unimpeded access to target environments.
The Impact of Compromised Machine Identities
When machine identities are compromised, the consequences are substantial. Machines typically require access to core databases, payment systems, and critical infrastructure. A stolen privileged token enables attackers to bypass traditional perimeter security controls entirely.
This unauthorized access frequently results in significant data breaches, as attackers extract sensitive customer data over extended periods. Additionally, compromised credentials enable lateral network movement to deploy ransomware or compromise systems. This creates operational disruptions that generate substantial financial losses and reputational damage.
Best Practices for Machine Identity Security
Protecting these assets requires a systematic, comprehensive security approach. Organizations must apply the same security rigor to non-human access as to human user access. Here are four must-dos:
- Deploy robust authentication protocols
Eliminate static, long-lived credentials. Implement short-lived certificates and enforce mutual TLS to ensure cryptographic identity verification for all network connections. Apply least privilege principles, granting each machine only the minimum access required for its designated function. - Establish comprehensive monitoring capabilities
Visibility provides the foundation for effective security. Organizations must maintain complete inventories of certificate locations, workload dependencies, and expiration schedules. Deploy automated monitoring to detect anomalous behavior, including API keys accessing unauthorized resources or operating outside established parameters. - Deploy specialized identity management platforms.
Standard user identity and access management systems cannot accommodate the volume and rapid deployment cycles of automated environments. Organizations require dedicated machine identity management solutions. These specialized platforms automate certificate lifecycle management, track keys across multi-cloud environments, and enable secure credential rotation without operational disruption.
Establishing Network Security Control
The widespread adoption of APIs, containers, and IoT devices enables significant operational efficiency and innovation while also creating an extensive, often poorly managed attack surface. Securing machine identities represents a critical component of enterprise cybersecurity architecture.
Organizations must begin by conducting comprehensive environmental audits to identify undocumented keys and certificates. Implementing complete visibility and control over non-human entities enables effective protection against data breaches and operational disruption.
The time to act is now: 8 in 10 organizations expect their machine identities to grow over the next year. with 63% expecting increases up to 50%, and 16% expecting increases between 50-150% each year, according to the “2025 State of Machine Identity Report” from CyberArk.
