CSA: Why Is NHI Ownership Critical for Security?

Feb 12, 2025

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Source URL: https://www.oasis.security/resources/blog/5-ways-non-human-identity-ownership-impacts-your-security-program
Source: CSA
Title: Why Is NHI Ownership Critical for Security?

Feedly Summary:

AI Summary and Description: Yes

Summary: The text discusses the criticality of clearly defined ownership for non-human identities (NHIs) as a foundational element of security programs and governance strategies. It emphasizes the implications of lacking ownership in effective identity management and highlights the importance of NHI ownership in aligning with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0.

Detailed Description: The article focuses extensively on the management of non-human identities (NHIs) and the necessity of assigning clear ownership within organizations to enhance security, compliance, and risk management. It outlines five specific ways that NHI ownership impacts an organization’s security posture:

– **Unmanaged Insider Threats**:
– Orphaned accounts without designated owners can be exploited, necessitating accountability for oversight.
– Lack of ownership can lead to privilege creep, where NHIs accumulate excessive access, undermining security controls.

– **Ineffective Identity and Access Management (IAM)**:
– Knowledge of who or what has access is vital. Poor ownership leads to users maintaining unnecessary privileges or orphaned accounts, creating easy attack vectors for malicious actors.

– **Increased Alert Fatigue**:
– Undefined NHI ownership results in overwhelming alerts for security teams, blurring the lines between real threats and false positives, thus complicating effective incident response.

– **Increased Administrative Overhead**:
– Without ownership, the burden of manually managing NHIs falls on security teams, complicating incident handling and increasing the potential for business disruption during remediative actions.

– **Challenges in Conducting Regular Reviews/Attestation**:
– Regular access reviews are hindered by unclear ownership, leading to gaps in oversight and governance practices within the organization.

The article stresses that weak governance and a lack of defined ownership can expose organizations to significant cybersecurity risks. It concludes by highlighting the importance of NHI ownership as part of a robust cybersecurity strategy and its relevance to the NIST CSF 2.0 framework, which serves as a guide for managing cybersecurity risks comprehensively.

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