SOC 2 Compliance for Non-Human Identities

Non-human identities are everywhere in modern systems. Service accounts, automation scripts, CI/CD bots, IoT devices, API clients. They run deployments, move data, generate logs, trigger alerts. They are not people, but they hold keys that can open critical infrastructure. In SOC 2 audits, they are often invisible until something breaks.

SOC 2 does not distinguish between a CEO’s login and the token used by your build server. All identities must be controlled. If you skip non-human identities, your access control evidence is incomplete. This is a common compliance gap. Auditors will ask: Who owns this account? How is access reviewed? How is it revoked when no longer needed?

Effective SOC 2 compliance for non-human identities means:

• Maintain an inventory of every service account, API key, and machine credential.
• Assign ownership. A human sponsor is accountable for each non-human identity.
• Enforce least privilege, limiting scope and permissions.
• Rotate secrets on a set schedule, and document the process.
• Monitor for anomalies in usage patterns.

Automation can make this practical. Detect new non-human identities as they appear. Map them to roles. Alert when they violate policy. Evidence collection must be continuous, not an annual scramble.

The risk is not theoretical. Machine accounts are often over-permissioned because no one wants a build pipeline to fail. That convenience is an attack vector. SOC 2 frameworks are built to find these cracks before they become breaches.

Non-human identities are part of your SOC 2 scope whether you track them or not. Treat them with the same rigor you apply to human users. The audit will see them. So will attackers.

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