Machine identity attacks grow more than 400 percent
The number of reported machine identity-related cyberattacks grew by 433 percent between 2018 and 2019, according to a new report from Venafi.
Between 2015 and 2019, the number of reported cyberattacks that used machine identities grew by more than 700 percent. Over the same period the number of vulnerabilities involving machine identities grew by 260 percent, increasing by 125 percent between 2018 and 2019.
"We have seen machine use skyrocket in organizations over the last five years, but many businesses still focus their security controls primarily on human identity management," says Kevin Bocek, vice president of security strategy and threat intelligence at Venafi. "Digital transformation initiatives are in jeopardy because attackers are able to exploit wide gaps in machine identity management strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic is driving faster adoption of cloud, hybrid and microservices architectures, but protecting machine identities for these projects are often an afterthought. The only way to mitigate these risks is to build comprehensive machine identity management programs that are as comprehensive as customer, partner and employee identity and access management strategies."
