{"id":15481,"date":"2026-09-28T09:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T03:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/?p=15481"},"modified":"2026-09-29T10:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T04:31:18","slug":"ai-agents-non-human-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/ai-agents-non-human-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Non-Human Insider: AI Agents as an Identity Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An AI agent is not a new category of risk. It is the newest, fastest-growing member of a population most organizations already fail to govern: non-human identities, the service accounts, API keys, IAM roles, and bots that vastly outnumber human logins and get a fraction of the oversight. Treating an agent like an insider means applying the same identity discipline used for people, provisioning, review, monitoring, retirement, to a population that currently gets almost none of it.<\/p><div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_88 ez-toc-wrap-center counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-light-blue ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #414141;color:#414141\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #414141;color:#414141\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/ai-agents-non-human-identity\/#AI_Agents_Are_the_Newest_Entrant_to_an_Old_Under-Governed_Population\" >AI Agents Are the Newest Entrant to an Old, Under-Governed Population<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/ai-agents-non-human-identity\/#A_Framework_the_AI_Conversation_Keeps_Skipping\" >A Framework the AI Conversation Keeps Skipping<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/ai-agents-non-human-identity\/#Book_a_Free_Demo_Call_with_Our_Expert\" >Book a Free Demo Call with Our Expert<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/ai-agents-non-human-identity\/#The_Lifecycle_Gap_Why_Machines_Never_Get_Offboarded\" >The Lifecycle Gap: Why Machines Never Get Offboarded<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/ai-agents-non-human-identity\/#What_Treating_an_Agent_Like_an_Insider_Actually_Requires\" >What Treating an Agent Like an Insider Actually Requires<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/ai-agents-non-human-identity\/#The_Bottom_Line\" >The Bottom Line<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/ai-agents-non-human-identity\/#Frequently_Asked_Questions\" >Frequently Asked Questions<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"AI_Agents_Are_the_Newest_Entrant_to_an_Old_Under-Governed_Population\"><\/span>AI Agents Are the Newest Entrant to an Old, Under-Governed Population<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Non-human identity is not a new term invented for the AI moment. Security teams have used it for years to describe every credential that isn&#8217;t a person: a service account that lets one system talk to another, an API key embedded in an integration, a certificate that authenticates a workload. What has changed is the ratio and the trajectory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyberark.com\/threat-landscape\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CyberArk&#8217;s 2025 Identity Security Landscape report<\/a> put the ratio of machine identities to human identities at 82 to 1. Palo Alto Networks&#8217; 2026 edition of the same kind of research measured it at 109 to 1, up again in a single year. AI agents are not the whole of that population, but they are its fastest-growing slice, arriving with more autonomy and broader access than the service accounts and API integrations that came before them, and inheriting every governance gap that already existed for that older population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A traditional service account is also static in a way an agent is not: once configured, it keeps doing the one thing it was set up to do until someone changes it. An AI agent can request new tool access mid-task, connect to a system nobody anticipated when it was first authorized, or generate its own working credentials for a sub-task, all without a human back in the provisioning workflow to approve any of it. That is what makes an agent a worse version of an already under-governed problem rather than simply a bigger one: the population is growing, and each new member can also expand its own footprint after the fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_Framework_the_AI_Conversation_Keeps_Skipping\"><\/span>A Framework the AI Conversation Keeps Skipping<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most AI security writing reaches for OWASP&#8217;s LLM or Agentic Top 10 lists, and both are genuinely useful. What gets skipped almost every time is the list built specifically for this exact problem: the <a href=\"https:\/\/owasp.org\/www-project-non-human-identities-top-10\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">OWASP Non-Human Identities Top 10<\/a>, published in 2025 by practitioners who were already fighting this battle over service accounts and API keys years before agents entered the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Four of its ten categories map directly onto how an AI agent actually fails:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>NHI1: Improper Offboarding.<\/strong> A credential that outlives the project, the team, or the person who requested it. An AI agent set up for a task that ended months ago, still holding its original access, is the textbook case.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>NHI5: Overprivileged NHI.<\/strong> Access granted at setup time and never revisited, because nobody owns the job of revisiting it. An agent that only ever needed read access to one folder but was granted broad access &#8220;to be safe&#8221; fits here exactly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>NHI7: Long-Lived Secrets.<\/strong> A credential with no expiration, versus one scoped to a session or a task. Most AI agent integrations default to the former because it is easier to set up, not because it is safer.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>NHI10: Human Use of NHI.<\/strong> A person using a machine credential to act with more authority or less accountability than their own account would allow. An employee routing a request through an agent&#8217;s elevated access, rather than their own more limited one, is this risk in its newest form.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>NHI2: Secret Leakage.<\/strong> The credential itself ending up somewhere it shouldn&#8217;t: hardcoded into a prompt template, pasted into a shared chat to debug a connection issue, or committed to a repository alongside the agent&#8217;s configuration. An AI agent&#8217;s setup process routinely involves copying keys between systems, which multiplies the chances one gets left somewhere visible.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>NHI9: NHI Reuse.<\/strong> The same credential wired into multiple agents or workflows because provisioning a fresh one takes longer than reusing an existing one. This turns a single leaked or misbehaving credential into a multi-agent incident instead of a contained one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A composite example, built from patterns across the risks above rather than any single case:<\/strong> a team spins up an AI agent to help triage support tickets, authenticates it with an existing service account because requesting a new one takes a week, and pastes the account&#8217;s API key into the agent&#8217;s configuration file, which a teammate later copies into a second, unrelated agent to save time. Eight months later, the original support project ends. The service account is never revisited, because nobody owns that decision, and two AI agents nobody is actively managing are still running on a credential with far broader access than either task ever needed. Every failure in that chain traces to a named OWASP NHI risk, and none of them required a sophisticated attacker to matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is not a coincidence of naming. An AI agent is architecturally a non-human identity with a goal attached, which means the risks that have plagued service accounts for a decade apply to it by default, before any AI-specific risk from <a href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/ai-risk-management-framework-rmf\/\">an AI risk management framework<\/a> is even added on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<meta charset=\"UTF-8\">\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0\">\n<title>Threatcop \u2013 Book a Free Demo<\/title>\n<link href=\"https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\/css2?family=Outfit:wght@300;400;500;600;700&#038;display=swap\" rel=\"stylesheet\">\n<style>\n  .tc-wrap , .tc-wrap ::before, .tc-wrap ::after { box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0; padding: 0; }\n  .tc-wrap { font-family: 'Outfit', sans-serif; width: 100%; display: flex; justify-content: center; padding: 20px 10px; }\n  .tc-card { width: 100%; max-width: 820px; background: #fff; border-radius: 20px; overflow: hidden; box-shadow: 0 20px 60px rgba(24,57,148,0.13), 0 4px 16px rgba(24,57,148,0.07); 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never shared with third parties\n        <\/div>\n      <\/form>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script>document.getElementById('tc-page-source').value = window.location.href;<\/script>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Lifecycle_Gap_Why_Machines_Never_Get_Offboarded\"><\/span>The Lifecycle Gap: Why Machines Never Get Offboarded<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every organization already has a process for the human identity lifecycle: HR systems trigger provisioning on day one, access reviews happen on a schedule, and an exit date triggers deprovisioning automatically, no matter who forgets. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.okta.com\/identity-101\/what-is-the-non-human-identity-lifecycle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The equivalent process for machine identities<\/a> is, in most organizations, informal at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The gap shows up at every stage. A human identity is created by an HR workflow; a non-human identity is usually created on demand by a developer or a script, with no equivalent trigger to track it. Human access gets quarterly certification in most compliance programs; machine credentials rarely receive a formal review at all, so permissions accumulate silently. And a human identity has a natural termination point, the day someone leaves. A machine credential has none. When the project it supported ends, the credential usually just keeps working, becoming what practitioners in this space call a zombie credential: dead in purpose, alive in access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An AI agent inherits this exact gap, with one difference that makes it worse. A dormant service account is inert until something reactivates it. A dormant AI agent with standing access and a scheduled trigger can still be acting, on a stale mandate, for a project that no longer exists, without anyone noticing until an audit or an incident forces the question, the same blind spot that <a href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/measuring-human-risk-in-security-program\/\">measuring human risk continuously<\/a> rather than annually already exists to catch on the people side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_Treating_an_Agent_Like_an_Insider_Actually_Requires\"><\/span>What Treating an Agent Like an Insider Actually Requires<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The framing is not a metaphor to gesture at. It implies specific, checkable practices, the same ones <a href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/how-do-insider-threat-programs-defend-against-insider-threats\/\">insider threat programs<\/a> already apply to people with legitimate, trusted access:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>A provisioning trigger that isn&#8217;t a script.<\/strong> Every AI agent should be created through a request that names an owner and an expiration, the same way a new-hire&#8217;s account is created through HR rather than an engineer typing a command.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Scheduled access review, not indefinite trust.<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/zero-trust-security\/\">Continuous verification<\/a>, not a one-time approval, is the model. An agent&#8217;s permissions should be re-justified on a calendar, the same way a privileged human account gets recertified.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Short-lived credentials over standing ones.<\/strong> A session-scoped or task-scoped credential that expires on its own is a smaller blast radius by default, regardless of what other controls exist around it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A termination trigger tied to something real.<\/strong> Project completion, a role change, or a scheduled review date should automatically flag an agent&#8217;s credential for revocation, rather than waiting for someone to remember it exists.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ownership that survives personnel changes.<\/strong> An agent whose only accountable owner left the company six months ago is an unowned identity with active permissions, which is precisely the condition a zombie credential thrives in.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Secrets handling that assumes leakage will happen.<\/strong> Treat every credential an agent uses as eventually exposed, and design around that assumption: scoped permissions that limit the damage of a leak, and rotation that shortens the window a leaked credential stays useful, rather than relying entirely on the credential never getting out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">None of this is exotic. It is the same <a href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/information-security-risk-management\/\">information security risk management<\/a> discipline already applied to human accounts under <a href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/human-risk-management\/\">human risk management<\/a> programs, extended to a population that has been quietly growing past human headcount for years and only now, because of AI, is getting any attention at all. The cost of leaving this ungoverned only grows the longer the gap stays open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Bottom_Line\"><\/span>The Bottom Line<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next serious breach in an organization with AI agents is unlikely to start with someone breaking in. It is more likely to start with a non-human identity that was let in on purpose, granted broad access at setup, never reviewed again, and still trusted by every system it touches. Fixing that is not a new discipline. It is the <a href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/people-security-management\">people security management<\/a> discipline security teams already know, applied to a population that has been overdue for it since long before AI agents made the gap impossible to ignore. The organizations that get ahead of this will be the ones that stopped treating machine credentials as a provisioning afterthought and started treating every one of them, agent included, as an identity with an owner, a purpose, and an expiration date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Frequently_Asked_Questions\"><\/span>Frequently Asked Questions<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\t\t<div class=\"sp-easy-accordion-block sp-eab-regular-accordion alignwide\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"sp-eab-wrapper sp-eab-vertical-accordion sp-eab-08e1a35bbda9\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion sp-eab-mode-vertical sp-eab-vertical-one sp-d-flex' data-accordion-settings=\"{&quot;mode&quot;:&quot;vertical&quot;,&quot;activeEvent&quot;:&quot;click&quot;,&quot;defaultAccordionOpen&quot;:&quot;first-item&quot;,&quot;selectedItemOpen&quot;:0,&quot;openMultiItemAtaTime&quot;:false,&quot;scrollToTopOnLoad&quot;:false,&quot;scrollToTopOnClick&quot;:false,&quot;accordionItemToUrl&quot;:false,&quot;animationEffect&quot;:false,&quot;applyAccessibility&quot;:true}\">\n        \t    \t\n\t\t\t<div\n\t\t\t\tid =\"sp-eab-item-ee9ce571bc09\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"sp-eab-accordion-item eab-item-5bbda9\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sp-eab-accordion-item-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class='sp-eab-accordion-heading sp-d-flex sp-align-center eab-heading-5bbda9'\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-wrapper sp-d-flex sp-align-center eab-icon-position-end'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-start sp-d-flex sp-justify-left sp-align-center'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-title-subtitle-wrapper sp-d-flex'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-title-wrapper sp-d-flex sp-align-center'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-title-text'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat is a non-human identity?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-end eab-icon-animated'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-expand-collapse-icon sp-d-block'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i class='sp-eab-expand-icon eab-icon-angle-down-solid'><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i class='sp-eab-collapse-icon eab-icon-angle-up-solid'><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- accordion body -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-content eab-content-5bbda9'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-content-wrapper'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-body'>\n\t\t\t    \t\t\t\t\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A non-human identity is any credential that isn&#8217;t tied to a person: service accounts, API keys, certificates, IAM roles, bots, and increasingly, AI agents. They authenticate and act the same way a human account does, but they rarely get the same provisioning, review, and offboarding discipline that a human account takes for granted.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n\t\t\t<div\n\t\t\t\tid =\"sp-eab-item-33acf621a529\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"sp-eab-accordion-item eab-item-5bbda9\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sp-eab-accordion-item-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class='sp-eab-accordion-heading sp-d-flex sp-align-center eab-heading-5bbda9'\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-wrapper sp-d-flex sp-align-center eab-icon-position-end'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-start sp-d-flex sp-justify-left sp-align-center'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-title-subtitle-wrapper sp-d-flex'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-title-wrapper sp-d-flex sp-align-center'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-title-text'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHow many non-human identities does the average organization have?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-end eab-icon-animated'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-expand-collapse-icon sp-d-block'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i class='sp-eab-expand-icon eab-icon-angle-down-solid'><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i class='sp-eab-collapse-icon eab-icon-angle-up-solid'><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- accordion body -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-content eab-content-5bbda9'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-content-wrapper'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-body'>\n\t\t\t    \t\t\t\t\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recent industry research puts the ratio of machine identities to human identities well over 100 to 1 in some measurements, up from roughly 82 to 1 the year before. AI agents are the fastest-growing slice of that population, not the majority of it yet, but the trend is accelerating.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n\t\t\t<div\n\t\t\t\tid =\"sp-eab-item-3631b831a84e\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"sp-eab-accordion-item eab-item-5bbda9\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sp-eab-accordion-item-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class='sp-eab-accordion-heading sp-d-flex sp-align-center eab-heading-5bbda9'\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-wrapper sp-d-flex sp-align-center eab-icon-position-end'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-start sp-d-flex sp-justify-left sp-align-center'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-title-subtitle-wrapper sp-d-flex'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-title-wrapper sp-d-flex sp-align-center'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-title-text'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat is a &#8220;zombie credential&#8221;?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-end eab-icon-animated'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-expand-collapse-icon sp-d-block'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i class='sp-eab-expand-icon eab-icon-angle-down-solid'><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i class='sp-eab-collapse-icon eab-icon-angle-up-solid'><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- accordion body -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-content eab-content-5bbda9'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-content-wrapper'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-body'>\n\t\t\t    \t\t\t\t\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A zombie credential is access that has outlived its purpose: a service account, API key, or AI agent whose project ended, whose owner left, or whose task was completed, but whose access was never revoked. It sits active and usable with nobody accountable for it, which is exactly the condition attackers look for.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n\t\t\t<div\n\t\t\t\tid =\"sp-eab-item-12da343ac4f4\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"sp-eab-accordion-item eab-item-5bbda9\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sp-eab-accordion-item-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class='sp-eab-accordion-heading sp-d-flex sp-align-center eab-heading-5bbda9'\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-wrapper sp-d-flex sp-align-center eab-icon-position-end'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-start sp-d-flex sp-justify-left sp-align-center'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-title-subtitle-wrapper sp-d-flex'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-title-wrapper sp-d-flex sp-align-center'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-title-text'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIs the OWASP Non-Human Identities Top 10 the same as the OWASP Agentic AI Top 10?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-end eab-icon-animated'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-expand-collapse-icon sp-d-block'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i class='sp-eab-expand-icon eab-icon-angle-down-solid'><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i class='sp-eab-collapse-icon eab-icon-angle-up-solid'><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- accordion body -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-content eab-content-5bbda9'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-content-wrapper'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-body'>\n\t\t\t    \t\t\t\t\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No, and conflating them is a common gap. The Agentic Top 10 addresses risks in how an agent behaves and makes decisions. The Non-Human Identities Top 10 addresses risks in how the agent&#8217;s underlying credential is provisioned, scoped, and retired. An AI agent needs both frameworks applied, not just one.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\n\t\t\t<div\n\t\t\t\tid =\"sp-eab-item-fa6007481706\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"sp-eab-accordion-item eab-item-5bbda9\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sp-eab-accordion-item-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class='sp-eab-accordion-heading sp-d-flex sp-align-center eab-heading-5bbda9'\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-wrapper sp-d-flex sp-align-center eab-icon-position-end'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-start sp-d-flex sp-justify-left sp-align-center'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-title-subtitle-wrapper sp-d-flex'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-title-wrapper sp-d-flex sp-align-center'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-title-text'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhy do AI agents rarely get properly offboarded?\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-accordion-header-end eab-icon-animated'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class='sp-eab-expand-collapse-icon sp-d-block'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i class='sp-eab-expand-icon eab-icon-angle-down-solid'><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<i class='sp-eab-collapse-icon eab-icon-angle-up-solid'><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- accordion body -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-content eab-content-5bbda9'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-content-wrapper'>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class='sp-eab-accordion-body'>\n\t\t\t    \t\t\t\t\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because most organizations have no equivalent to an HR-triggered exit process for machine identities. A human&#8217;s access ends automatically on their last day. An agent&#8217;s access has no natural end point unless someone deliberately builds one in, which is why so many agents keep working long after the task they were created for is finished.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AI agents are the newest, fastest-growing non-human identity. See the OWASP NHI Top 10, the lifecycle gap, and why agents rarely get offboarded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":15492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[424],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-cybersecurity"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Non-Human Identity: Why AI Agents Are the Newest Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AI agents are the newest, fastest-growing non-human identity. See the OWASP NHI Top 10, the lifecycle gap, and why agents rarely get offboarded.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/threatcop.com\/blog\/ai-agents-non-human-identity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Non-Human Identity: Why AI Agents Are the Newest Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AI agents are the newest, fastest-growing non-human identity. 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