How Can We Achieve Better NHI Security?
Cloud environment security is an integral part of cybersecurity strategies for businesses operating across financial services, healthcare, travel, and more. How can organizations unlock improved results and ensure robust Non-Human Identities (NHIs) security? A strategic approach to NHI management can bridge the gap between security and research & development teams, reducing the risk of breaches, ensuring compliance, and increasing efficiency.
What Makes NHIs and Secrets Crucial for Cloud Security Control?
NHIs are machine identities used for authentication in cybersecurity. They are created with a “Secret” – an encrypted password, token, or key acting as a unique identifier (akin to a passport) and the permissions granted to that Secret by the destination server (resembling a visa based on your passport).
The management of NHIs and their secrets necessitates securing both the identities (the “tourist”) and their access credentials (the “passport”), while also monitoring their behaviors. This multifaceted approach is what sets NHI management apart, providing a scope far beyond point solutions like secret scanners that offer minimal protective measures.
An All-Encompassing Approach to Securing Machine Identities and Secrets
Taking a comprehensive approach to NHI management can cover all aspects of lifecycle stages – from discovery and classification to threat detection and remediation. This extensive coverage is not offered by point solutions, making it clear that NHI management is an integral part of any holistic cybersecurity strategy.
By providing insights into factors such as ownership, permissions, usage patterns, and potential vulnerabilities, an NHI management platform can offer context-aware security. This delivers a plethora of benefits, such as:
– Proactive risk reduction
– Ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements by enforcing policies and audit trails.
– Increased efficiency through automation
– Enhanced visibility and control
– Cost savings via automated secrets rotation and NHI decommissioning
All these points to the fact that NHI management is a vital piece of the cybersecurity puzzle – one that cannot be overlooked if we desire better NHI security and improved results. For instance, studies have shown organizations that invest in NHI management and secrets security have seen marked reductions in data leaks and security breaches.
The Pathway to Improved NHI Security: A Strategic Shift
Improving NHI security is not just about technological upgrades. It also requires a strategic shift in how we view and manage machine identities and secrets. NHI management is not a standalone initiative. Instead, it needs to be integrated into broader cybersecurity strategies, reinforcing the foundation on which organizations build their digital defenses.
An example of this strategic shift can be found in the healthcare industry, where many organizations have started to understand the value of NHI management for better NHI security. As outlined in this Entro Security blog post, such measures have been instrumental in reducing security threats.
Looking at the Broader Picture: Transforming Cybersecurity Strategies
Understanding the key role of NHI management in providing better cybersecurity outcomes is the first step. When we move forward, the focus should be on creating a culture of continuous security improvement, where NHI management plays a critical role.
Better NHI security is unquestionably achievable. It requires adoption of a strategic approach that embraces comprehensive NHI management practices. By doing so, organizations can reduce risk, improve compliance, increase efficiency, and ultimately, generate improved results. With the management of NHI and secrets continues to evolve, it will be exciting to see the advancements and transformations that are on the horizon.
To learn more about the further enhancements in NHI management and their impact on security strategies, stay tuned to our series of posts in this critical domain.
Why is there a Need for Strategic Control over NHI’s and Secrets?
Understanding the role of NHIs and Secrets in securing cloud environments is vital. The value these non-human identities and encrypted keys hold is immense. Identifying and integrating effective NHI management strategies is not just about securing machine identities and their secrets. It’s about augmenting humans’ capabilities to manage digital identities and enforce stronger cybersecurity measures.
Moreover, evolving cybersecurity threats requires an innovative approach to understanding the behavioural patterns of non-human identities. It is not enough to grant access and provide credentials. There needs to be vigilance to monitor how these identities behave.
Scalable and Sustainable – The Call for Proactive NHI Management:
The increased adoption of automated processes and machine-to-machine interactions calls for robust management of machine identities. Effective NHI management can scale alongside a business’s growth, improving the ability to detect anomalies and reduce the risk of security breaches.
To draw a parallel, think of a bustling city. Measures are put in place to manage the increasing number of inhabitants and their activities. These systems include law enforcement, traffic management, and urban planning. They aim to ensure the smooth functioning of the city, just like NHI management aims to maintain the safety and efficiency of a digitised business environment.
Driving an Organizational Shift towards NHI Management:
Integrating NHI management into your cybersecurity strategy involves changing the organizational culture. Attention should be shifted from reactive firefighting to proactively anticipating and mitigating threats. A strategic shift in thinking will enable organizations to view NHIs as both potential vulnerabilities and allies in closing security gaps.
In practice, this transformation can take the form of training programs that educate employees about the management of NHIs, implementing sophisticated NHI management tools, and fostering an environment that values continuous improvement in security practices.
Fighting Fire with Fire: Mitigating Risks with Advanced NHIs Management:
But why is such a shift crucial? Organizations with effective NHI management strategies witnessed a significant decrease in the occurrence of security breaches. However, those who failed to efficiently manage non-human identities and their secrets were more vulnerable to attacks.
The Future of NHI management:
Current technological advancements and the increasing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will inevitably revolutionize the way we perceive and manage NHIs. With the integration of these technologies, we could foresee customized NHI management practices that consider the unique characteristics of each machine identity, thereby increasing the level of security.
Engage to Elevate: The Role of Community Partnership
Implementing effective NHI management is a collaborative endeavour, often requiring the expertise of multiple teams within an organization and sometimes even extending to partnerships with external security firms. On this note, Entro’s strategic partnership with Silverfort exemplifies how complementing expertise can drive forward the scope of NHI security.
The journey to improved NHI security calls for constant adaptation and proactive anticipation of potential threats. By intelligently managing machine identities and secrets, organizations can shape a more secure future for their cloud operations. Watch this space for more discussions around NHI in our upcoming posts.
The post Getting Better Results from NHI Security appeared first on Entro.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Entro authored by Alison Mack. Read the original post at: https://entro.security/getting-better-results-from-nhi-security/