Secure machine identity security to the same degree as humans.
Security leaders believe machine identities – specifically access tokens and their connected service accounts – are the next big target for attackers.
According to research by Venafi of 800 security and IT decision-makers, 56 percent had experienced a security incident related to machine identities using service accounts in the last year.
Looking at which cloud native infrastructure organizations have experienced security incidents, 56 percent cited access tokens used with service accounts, while 53 percent experienced incidents related to other machine identities, such as certificates.
Kevin Bocek, chief innovation officer at Venafi, a CyberArk Company, said: “Attackers are increasingly zoning in on machine identities in cloud native technologies. Security teams must prioritise machine identity security to the same degree as human identities.”
However, 91 percent of respondents agreed that service accounts make it easier to ensure that policies are uniformly defined and enforced across cloud native environments.
Also, 86 percent of organisations had a security incident related to their cloud native environment within the last year. As a result, 53 percent of organisations had to delay an application launch or slow down production time; 45 percent suffered outages or disruption to their application service; and 30 percent said attackers could gain unauthorised access to data, networks and systems.
Written by
Dan Raywood
Senior Editor
SC Media UK
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with more than 20 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 16 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Conference, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and ESET Security Days.
Outside work, Dan enjoys supporting Tottenham Hotspur, managing mischievous cats, and sampling craft beers.
