Why is NHI Management Imperative for Optimal Security?

Where the cloud has become a major part of numerous industries and businesses, handling Non-Human Identities (NHIs) is no longer an option but rather a necessity. So, how crucial is a comprehensive plan for NHI management in delivering effective security?

Non-human identities, the “machine passports” that navigate digital, underpin essential business processes, and provide critical access to resources. Unfortunately, these NHIs pose an attractive target for malicious actors, making their proper management a cornerstone of a robust cybersecurity strategy.

NHI Management: An Underrated yet Essential Component

Consider NHIs as tourists traveling in your system and their credentials as passports. As varied their purposes might be, their safe passage significantly contributes to your system’s overall security.

The continuous discovery, categorization, protection, and monitoring of these machine identities are a testament to the dynamic and comprehensive nature of NHI management. This broad-ranging process contrasts with traditional, limited scope security solutions such as secret scanners.

The importance of an effective NHI management strategy is clear when examining the consequences of poor NHI security. According to a Ponemon Institute survey, inadequate access controls are a top enabling factor in data breaches.

Unlocking the Benefits of NHI Management

Effective NHI management brings forth numerous benefits that enhance organizational cybersecurity postures, streamline operations, and improve regulatory compliance.

• Reduced Risk: Proactive identification and mitigation of security risks significantly minimize the potential for breaches and leaks. This proactive approach is a significant step towards creating a safer digital environment.
• Improved Compliance: Regulatory requirements can be daunting, but with an effective NHI management process, meeting these requirements becomes more achievable. By enforcing policies and maintaining audit trails, organizations can demonstrate their commitment to security and data integrity.
• Increased Efficiency: Automation of NHI and secret management grants the security teams freedom to focus on more strategic initiatives, thereby promoting efficiency.
• Enhanced Visibility and Control: A centralized view for access management and governance allows for improved monitoring and control over the organization’s digital resources.
• Cost Savings: Automating secrets rotation and NHI decommissioning can significantly reduce operational costs associated with manual management.

Moving Forward with NHI Management

Given the escalating prevalence of cyber threats, NHI management is no longer a luxury but an elemental necessity for organizations operating. It’s crucial for businesses to recognize this and invest their resources in solutions that offer comprehensive security, starting from diligent NHI discovery to threat remediation.

A key factor for success is raising awareness amongst all stakeholders, fostering a culture that values security and understands the role of NHIs in maintaining it. According to a Cybint report, 95% of cybersecurity breaches are due to human error. Thus, an effective security culture can dramatically reduce risk.

To support the knowledge and understanding of NHIs, businesses must also consider integrating NHI management platforms that provide comprehensive visibility, control, and insights into NHIs behavior, ownership, permissions, and potential vulnerabilities.

Finally, as organizations invest in maximizing their cybersecurity efforts, the significance of NHI management becomes more evident. By prioritizing NHI management, organizations are well-positioned to strengthen their security posture, improve efficiency, and ensure compliance.

Is your NHI Management Strategy up to the Task?

Considering the importance of NHI management, it’s essential that organizations constantly assess and improve their NHI management strategies. This continual focus will help ensure they can effectively protect their machine identities and access credentials, while also providing a more secure and efficient environment for their operations. With technology advances, the specific tactics and tools needed for effective NHI management may change, but the overall need for effective management of these crucial elements will remain.

An insightful report from Gartner projects that the damage related to cybercrime will hit $6 trillion annually by 2021. This statistic alone underlines the urgency and necessity of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, with robust NHI management being integral to this equation.

NHI Management: Implementing a Framework

The key to effective NHI management is proactive and systematic control. This begins with the discovery and classification of all existing NHIs and their associated secrets within the system. Inventory records should be kept up-to-date to reflect the current number of active NHIs.

Once all NHIs are identified, businesses can move onto assigning ownership, defining guidelines for usage, and setting permissions. Secure and automated mechanisms for managing the secrets associated with NHIs should be in place to ensure routine rotation and replacements.

Promoting Security Education and Awareness

An essential part of effective NHI management is promoting a security-conscious work culture. The technicality and complexity of NHIs can make it challenging for non-technical stakeholders to understand the security implications. A culture that encourages information sharing and learning can help in creating a broader understanding of the role and associated risks of NHIs.

It is thus pivotal that businesses keep their employees updated on the latest security policies, practices, and regulatory requirements surrounding NHI management. Regular training and awareness sessions could significantly help in achieving this.

Getting Insights into NHI Management through Analytics

Machine learning and artificial intelligence can certainly lend a hand in NHI management by providing valuable insights and predictive intelligence on potential vulnerabilities. By assessing patterns in usage and behaviors of NHIs, analytics can help detect abnormalities and potential threats early, thereby aiding quick remediation efforts.

Quick Remediation

All these efforts in NHI management amount to nothing if vulnerabilities are not addressed promptly upon being discovered. Quick remediation is thus cornerstone to preventing possible cyber attacks. It requires a systematic process and collaboration between cross-functional teams – starting from the security team identifying the risk, notifying the owner, to getting it fixed at the earliest.

Future-Proofing the NHI Management Strategy

Security should be viewed as a continuous process, not a one-off project. It needs to be engrained in every workflow and process. By doing so, organizations will not only be better equipped to handle existing threats but also be prepared against future security challenges.

In parallel, advancements in technology need to be harnessed to further strengthen security strategies. AI and machine learning can prove beneficial in identifying patterns, predicting vulnerabilities, and automating remedial measures.

Adopting Best Practices for NHI Management

Here are some best practices that could go a long way in optimizing NHI management within an organization:

• Policy-Driven Management: Create policies that clearly define the lifecycles, ownership, permissions, usage, and auditing requirements for all NHIs.
• Automation of Routine Tasks: Automate and streamline procedures such as secret rotation, expiry checks, password changes, etc.
• Swift Response to Vulnerabilities: Have a well-defined remediation process to quickly respond to identified vulnerabilities and risks.
• Use of Technology: Employ advanced technologies like AI and ML to predict threats, detect unusual behavior, and automate remediation.
• Continuous Security Education: Keep every member of the organization informed and aware of the latest security practices and changes.

To wrap up, NHI management is a vital part of an organization’s cybersecurity strategy. A well-defined, comprehensive, and continuously evolving strategy can help businesses stay one step ahead of the prevailing threats. Where cybercrime continues to rise, now is the time to refocus on enhancing your NHI management strategy.

The post Driving Optimal Results With Effective NHI Management 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/driving-optimal-results-with-effective-nhi-management/