Incident Response for Non-Human Identities

The alert came in at 02:14 UTC. No user was logged in, yet privileged commands were executed. The identity was not human.

Non-human identities — service accounts, API keys, machine users, CI/CD bots — are everywhere in modern systems. They run jobs, move data, deploy code, and operate without direct human oversight. When one is compromised, the breach is often faster, quieter, and harder to detect than a human account incident.

A strong incident response plan must treat non-human identities as first-class security subjects. That means knowing every identity, mapping its permissions, and tracking its behavior over time. Most breaches succeed because the scope and access of these identities are opaque or forgotten.

Key components of a non-human identities incident response strategy:

1. Inventory and Classification
Catalog every non-human identity. Track its purpose, owner, and access scope. If you cannot name the service or system it belongs to, remove or disable it.

2. Authentication and Rotation
Implement short-lived credentials where possible. Automate credential rotation to limit exposure. API keys with excessive lifetime are an open door.

3. Monitoring and Anomaly Detection
Log and monitor all activity from non-human identities. Compare against baseline behavior. Anomalies like access outside normal hours or new resource creation should trigger alerts.

4. Containment
When compromise is suspected, immediately disable the identity or revoke its tokens. Remove its roles from critical systems before starting deeper forensic work.

5. Root Cause and Remediation
Investigate the path of attack. Was the credential leaked in logs? Was the pipeline misconfigured? Fix systemic flaws before re-enabling the identity.

6. Continuous Review
Non-human identities proliferate over time. Schedule recurring audits to reduce stale accounts and unnecessary privilege.

Fast recognition and action are critical. Machines move faster than people. The time between detection and containment can determine the magnitude of damage.

If your current incident response process focuses only on human accounts, your system has blind spots. Build protocols that assume machine actors can and will be compromised. Test them under realistic scenarios. Make every identity accountable.

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