5 Dimensions to Securing Machine Identities

Securing Machine Identities in a Hybrid Multi-cloud Environment

The rapid development and adoption of hybrid multi-cloud environments coupled with advances in DevOps processes have triggered a significant expansion of machine identities, encompassing both workloads and devices. These machines routinely connect to various microservices to bolster their functionalities. To ensure secure machine-to-machine interactions, machine identities rely on secrets like credentials, certificates, and keys for authentication and data flow security. Therefore, it’s no wonder that the exponential rise of machine identities coincides with an increasing number of secrets. Read on to learn 5 Dimensions to Securing Machine Identities.

Machine identities diverge from human identities in one key aspect – their ephemeral nature. They can power on or off based on demand fluctuations, operating on any platform or geographical location. Hence, machine identities require access to a plethora of secrets, which must be securely orchestrated as needed. This article examines five ways a secrets management solution like Akeyless can reinforce machine identity security.

1. Centralized Control

Machine identities, scattered across hybrid multi-cloud environments, necessitate consistent access policies regardless of the cloud platform they operate on. Akeyless ensures this centralized policy configuration and enforcement, thereby averting security blind spots that could arise from inconsistent access policies.

Akeyless’ secrets orchestration solution combats secret sprawl by offering secure storage and orchestration of secrets across diverse business units and developer teams.

2. Automation

Machine identities are highly dynamic and are auto-orchestrated as part of DevOps processes. Akeyless facilitates the automatic injection of required secrets into workloads, thereby ensuring uninterrupted operations. It also automates the lifecycle management of secrets, from creation to storage, rotation, and eventual revocation.

By leveraging Akeyless’ centralized secrets lifecycle management solution, businesses can ensure automated operations across their entire hybrid multicloud infrastructure.

3. Governance

With Akeyless, security teams can maintain oversight of secrets’ storage and usage. Akeyless resolves tracking issues associated with static secrets by offering dynamic or Just-in-Time (JIT) secrets. These temporary credentials, customized for the connecting identity, minimize the risk of longstanding privileges.

Akeyless’ secrets management solution offers seamless integration with centralized log analyzers, enabling security teams and engineers to correlate events and take automated actions when necessary.

4. DevOps Compatibility

Akeyless provides a user-friendly interface for DevOps teams, allowing them to securely and efficiently manage machine identities. It also offers a simple and standardized workflow for secrets injection into the workload.

Akeyless’ platform accommodates numerous tools for CI/CD, Configuration Management, and Container Orchestration, thereby ensuring developers aren’t limited in their choice of tools.

5. Implementing Zero Trust

Akeyless supports the Zero Trust model, which dictates that no access request, whether from inside or outside the network, should be trusted by default. By using Akeyless, businesses can easily transition to an environment with zero standing privileges, using JIT secrets that are generated on-demand and revoked shortly after use.

In addition, Akeyless employs a Zero Knowledge approach with its revolutionary Vaultless™ technology and Distributed Fragments Cryptography (DFC™). These technologies ensure that the user’s sensitive data remains fragmented and encrypted, preventing unauthorized access and significantly reducing the attack surface.

According to a study by the Ponemon Institute, mismanagement of machine identities could cost businesses over $52 billion annually. But with Akeyless, organizations can stay ahead of threats and protect their machine identities effectively.

For instance, Akeyless has a proven track record of aiding multinational corporations. These firms achieved a 70% reduction in time spent managing secrets, and observed a significant decrease in the number of security incidents, thanks to Akeyless’ secrets management solution.

Moreover, by leveraging Akeyless’ Vaultless™ technology and DFC™, businesses can eliminate the need for a traditional vault-based storage system, thereby minimizing the risk of unauthorized data access.

5 Dimensions to Securing Machine Identities with Akeyless

In conclusion, securing machine identities in today’s interconnected digital ecosystem is crucial for every business. With the Akeyless Platform, organizations can implement comprehensive secrets management, secure their machine identities, and bolster their overall security posture.

To explore more ways Akeyless can secure your machine identities, book a demo at akeyless.io.