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FAQs
Get answers to all your NHI and NHI assessment-related questions.
General
A Non-Human Identity, or NHI, is a digital identity used by a system, application, service, API, automation workflow, cloud workload, or AI agent to access another system or resource.Examples include service accounts, API keys, access tokens, service principals, managed identities, automation bots, CI/CD pipeline accounts, machine-to-machine connections, and AI agents.These identities are not people, but they often have access to important systems, applications, cloud resources, and data.
An NHI Assessment is a structured review of Non-Human Identities across cloud, automation, and AI-driven environments.The goal is to identify what machine identities exist, who owns them, what access they have, whether their credentials are risky, and which identities should be reviewed or remediated first.IDMEXPRESS helps organizations turn hidden machine identity risk into a clear and practical action plan.
A person's identity is what makes them who they are, whether it's an employee, a contractor, someone who runs things, or a customer. It's like a label that says who you are and what you do.A Non-Human Identity belongs to a system, application, service, automation process, or AI agent.Human users can usually be managed through onboarding, offboarding, MFA, access reviews, and HR-driven lifecycle processes. NHIs are harder to manage because they often do not have MFA, may not have a clear owner, and can remain active long after they are needed.
Non-Human Identities can be risky because they often have powerful access and are not always governed like human users.Some common problems we see are when nobody is in charge, people have too much access, passwords are used for too long, old accounts are still active, secret codes get out, we don't change passwords often enough, and it's not clear what happens to things over time.If one of these identities is compromised, it may provide access to sensitive systems, cloud resources, applications, or data.
Companies need a Non-Human Identity Assessment because machine identities are often created quickly, used in the background, and then forgotten.Service accounts, API keys, access tokens, automation accounts, cloud identities, and AI agents may continue running long after a project ends or a system changes. Over time, these identities can lose clear ownership, keep unnecessary access, use old credentials, or remain active without regular review.Organizations often miss risks such as:API keys that are never rotatedService accounts with no ownerAutomation identities with too much accessCloud identities that are no longer usedSecrets stored in scripts, repositories, or shared foldersAI agents using access without proper governance
An IDMEXPRESS NHI Assessment helps uncover these hidden risks, explain what matters most, and provide a practical remediation plan before they become security, compliance, or operational issues.A service account may stay active after a project ends. An API key may never get rotated. An automation identity may have more access than it needs. An AI agent may be using credentials without proper governance.An NHI Assessment helps organizations find these risks before they become security, compliance, or operational issues.
IDMEXPRESS reviews key machine identity risk areas, including:* NHI discovery* Ownership and accountability* Credential hygiene* Privilege and access risk* Stale and inactive identities* AI-agent identity risk* Compliance and governance gaps* Remediation prioritiesThe assessment is designed to help both technical and business teams understand where risk exists and what to fix first.
Assessment Scope
The NHI Assessment can review machine identities such as:* Service accounts* API keys* Access tokens* Service principals* Managed identities* Cloud IAM users* Automation bots* CI/CD pipeline identities* Machine-to-machine connections* AI agents and agentic workflowsWhat the assessment will cover depends on the organization and what it wants to achieve.
Yes. The NHI Assessment is designed for organizations using cloud, hybrid, and automation-heavy environments.It can help review cloud-related machine identities such as AWS IAM users, Azure service principals, managed identities, GCP service accounts, API keys, tokens, and automation identities.
Yes. AI agents and agentic workflows are an important part of modern Non-Human Identity risk.AI agents may access tools, files, APIs, enterprise applications, or cloud resources. If their credentials, permissions, or activity are not governed properly, they can introduce new security and compliance risks.The NHI Assessment helps bring AI-agent identities into the same visibility and governance conversation as service accounts, API keys, and automation identities.
The assessment is useful for teams responsible for identity, access, security, cloud, automation, governance, and compliance.Common participants include IAM leaders, PAM leaders, CISOs, cloud security teams, DevOps teams, platform engineering teams, application owners, compliance teams, audit teams, risk teams, and AI governance teams.
Yes. Cloud migration and modernization projects often create new service accounts, access keys, managed identities, automation accounts, and application integrations.An NHI Assessment can help organizations review these identities, identify risky access patterns, and create stronger governance before risk spreads across the cloud environment.
Risk Areas
An orphaned Non-Human Identity is a machine identity that does not have a clear owner.This situation can occur when something comes to an end, like a project, or when someone moves on, such as an employee leaving, or a team undergoes changes. It can also happen when an application is no longer used, but for some reason, the identity associated with it stays active.Orphaned identities are risky because no one may be responsible for reviewing access, rotating credentials, approving usage, or decommissioning the identity.
Credential hygiene means how well machine identity credentials are managed throughout their lifecycle.For Non-Human Identities, this may include API keys, access tokens, service account keys, secrets, certificates, cloud access keys, and application credentials.IDMEXPRESS reviews credential hygiene by looking for issues such as:Long-lived credentialsCredentials without expiration datesCredentials overdue for rotationCredentials tied to inactive identitiesCredentials with unclear ownershipExposed or poorly stored secretsCredentials connected to excessive permissions
The IDMEXPRESS NHI Assessment helps organizations identify which credentials need attention and what actions should come next, such as rotation, owner assignment, vaulting, access reduction, or replacement with short-lived access where possible.Good credential hygiene reduces the chance that an API key, token, or service account becomes an easy path into sensitive systems.
Long-lived credentials are risky because they can remain valid for a long time, even if they are no longer needed or have been exposed.If someone gets hold of a long-lived API key or service account key, either because it was leaked, reused, or simply forgotten, it can be a big problem. This is because the attacker will have more time to use it for the wrong purposes.The NHI Assessment helps identify credentials that may need rotation, expiration policies, vaulting, or replacement with short-lived access models.
Least privilege means giving an identity only the access it needs to perform its job — nothing more.It's really important to think about identities that aren't human, like service accounts and AI agents, because they can be working in the background without us even realizing it. If they have too many permissions, it can be a big problem if something goes wrong, because the impact of a security breach can be a lot bigger.The NHI Assessment is a tool that assists in recognizing identities that have too much access or permissions, which might require a closer look to make sure everything is in order.
Stale or inactive machine identities are identities that appear unused, outdated, or no longer connected to an active business process.They can still pose a threat even if they're not being used, as long as they have valid credentials or permissions enabled.The NHI Assessment is a tool that assists organizations in recognizing these identities, allowing them to be evaluated and then either reviewed, disabled, reassigned, or decommissioned as needed. This process is important for maintaining organizational efficiency and security.
Business Value
An NHI Assessment helps support compliance by giving organizations better visibility into ownership, access, credential management, privileged access, stale identities, and remediation priorities.This can help with internal audits, access reviews, regulatory readiness, and governance discussions.This provides leaders and technical teams with a better understanding of how machine identities are vulnerable.
An NHI Assessment helps organizations answer important business and security questions:* What machine identities exist?* Who owns them?* Which identities are risky?* Which credentials need review?* Which identities have too much access?* Which AI agents need stronger controls?* What should be fixed first?This helps reduce hidden identity risk, improve governance, support audit readiness, and prioritize remediation work.
Zero Trust requires continuous verification, least-privilege access, and stronger control over who or what can access systems.Non-Human Identities are part of that access picture. The NHI Assessment supports Zero Trust by helping organizations identify machine identities, review permissions, reduce excessive access, improve credential hygiene, and strengthen governance.
AI agents and automation workflows can work for different parts of a company, like teams or business processes. They can get to important things like files, APIs, cloud services, databases, and the apps the company uses. This helps them do their jobs and make things happen automatically.If these identities are not governed, they can create unmanaged access paths.NHI security helps organizations adopt AI more safely by bringing AI-agent identities, credentials, permissions, and activity into the identity governance process.
Deliverables
Typical deliverables may include:* Non-Human Identity Inventory Summary* Risk categorization by identity type and environment* Orphaned identity findings* Credential risk findings* Least-privilege and excessive-access findings* Stale or inactive identity findings* AI-agent identity risk observations* Compliance and governance gap summary* Prioritized remediation roadmap* Executive-level summary for leadership* Technical findings summary for IAM, cloud, DevOps, and security teamsThe goal is to help your organization understand what exists, what is risky, and what to fix first.
One of the key objectives of the NHI Assessment is to prioritize, which is a crucial step in the process.Machine identity environments can produce a long list of findings. IDMEXPRESS helps organize those findings so teams can focus on the identities that create the highest security, business, or compliance risk first.
Recommended actions may include assigning owners, rotating credentials, removing excessive permissions, reviewing stale identities, disabling unused identities, moving toward short-lived credentials, improving access review processes, and strengthening NHI governance.The remediation roadmap depends on the findings and the organization’s environment.
To get started, reach out to IDMEXPRESS and have a conversation about your setup, what you want to achieve with your business, and what's important to you when it comes to keeping your identity secure.The assessment helps your team identify Non-Human Identities, understand key risks, and create a practical roadmap for remediation.You can use headings, bullet points, or numbered lists to organize your content and make it easier to read.
An organization should consider an NHI Assessment when it is using cloud platforms, automation, DevOps pipelines, APIs, SaaS integrations, privileged credentials, or AI agents.It's really helpful in certain situations, like when you're getting ready for an audit, or after you've expanded your cloud, or when you're updating your identity and access management systems. You might also want to use it after making big changes to an application, or when the people in charge want to get a better understanding of any potential identity risks that might be hiding.
After the NHI Assessment, IDMEXPRESS helps organizations move from findings to action.The next steps may include:Executive and technical review of findingsPrioritized remediation roadmapOwner assignment for orphaned identitiesCredential rotation planningLeast-privilege access reviewStale identity cleanup recommendationsIAM and PAM alignmentSecret vaulting guidanceAI-agent governance recommendationsCompliance and audit-readiness support
Some organizations may only need the assessment and roadmap. Others may want IDMEXPRESS to help with remediation, governance design, implementation support, or ongoing managed identity security services.The goal is to make the assessment actionable, not just informational.
Miscellaneous
No. Any organization using cloud services, APIs, automation, SaaS integrations, DevOps pipelines, privileged credentials, or AI agents can benefit from an NHI Assessment.Large enterprises may have a bigger machine identity footprint, but smaller organizations can still face serious risk from unmanaged service accounts, API keys, and automation credentials.
IDMEXPRESS focuses on making technical identity risk understandable for both business and technical stakeholders.The NHI Assessment goes beyond just identifying technical problems; it also looks at who is responsible, how people access the system, the status of user credentials, how often things are used, and what impact it has on following rules and regulations. Plus, it gives practical advice on what to do next.The goal is to help teams move from confusion to action.
Secret scanning is a useful tool that helps find secrets that are out in the open, like API keys or tokens, so we can keep them safe.An NHI Assessment goes further by looking at the identity behind the credential. It helps answer who owns the identity, what access it has, whether it is still used, whether permissions are excessive, and what remediation should happen first.Secret scanning is important, but NHI Assessment gives a broader machine identity risk view.
IAM and PAM programs are essential for managing access and privileged accounts.NHI Assessment works together with IAM and PAM, but it looks at machine identities in particular, like service accounts, API keys, and identities used for automation, cloud, and AI. This helps make sure these machine identities are properly managed and secure.It helps identify which NHIs need ownership, credential rotation, access review, privilege reduction, vaulting, JIT access, or stronger governance.
Cloud security posture tools often look broadly at misconfigurations, cloud risks, workloads, vulnerabilities, and permissions.NHI Assessment focuses specifically on the machine identity layer. It looks at identities, ownership, credential posture, stale usage, excessive permissions, AI-agent access, and remediation priorities.This makes assessment really useful, even for groups that are already using tools to keep their cloud security in check.
IDMEXPRESS NHI Assessment is not only for large enterprises. Small and medium-sized businesses also use cloud platforms, APIs, SaaS applications, automation, DevOps pipelines, and AI tools – all of which can create Non-Human Identity risk.In smaller environments, machine identities are often created to solve immediate business needs, but they may not always be reviewed, rotated, or removed later.IDMEXPRESS helps small and medium-sized enterprises understand:What machine identities existWho owns themWhich credentials need reviewWhich identities have too much accessWhich accounts are stale or unusedWhat should be fixed first
The goal is to give smaller teams a clear, realistic starting point without overwhelming them with a large enterprise-style program.
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