Securing Non-Human Identities: The Rising Threat of Identity-Related Attacks in Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Threats on the Rise: The Battle to Secure Non-Human Identities

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats, one type of attack vector appears to be staying for good – identity-related attacks. Recent data shows that seven high-profile attacks in the past 10 months have leveraged non-human identities such as API keys, OAuth tokens, and service accounts to infiltrate organizations, steal sensitive data, and cause havoc before disappearing without a trace.

These attacks fall into three main categories, each highlighting the urgent need for organizations to secure their non-human identities:

1. Supply chain attacks: Hackers exploit connections with third-party apps to gain access to an organization’s core systems using stolen access tokens. Recent incidents involving popular apps like GitHub, Mailchimp, and CircleCI have demonstrated the severity of this threat.

2. OAuth phishing: Next-gen phishing attacks involve impersonating legitimate apps to trick employees into granting access. Notable instances at Microsoft have shown how malicious OAuth applications can be used to spread spam and target corporate users through consent phishing.

3. Company access token attacks: Internal threats involve hackers using company access tokens to move laterally within an organization and gain unauthorized access to external repositories, as seen in breaches at GitHub and Slack.

To combat these escalating threats, businesses must prioritize securing non-human identities by extending access management, threat detection, and incident response protocols. With non-human entities outnumbering human identities by a factor of 45, the risks of leaving these identities unprotected are too high to ignore.

As attacks on trusted vendors like GitHub, Microsoft, and Slack continue to rise, the time to secure non-human identities is now. Implementing robust security measures for access tokens, integrations, and authentication tools is essential to safeguarding organizations against the growing threat of identity-related attacks.