Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Content originally created and published by Venak Security. Cybercriminals are increasingly adopting stealthy and advanced techniques, notably Dynamic-Link Library (DLL) side-loading and browser memory scraping, to install malware that stealthily harvests users’ passwords, credit card data, cookies, session tokens and more. These attacks blend social engineering, search manipulation and memory-level exploitation to bypass traditional defenses and compromise victims at scale.

A global technology services provider based in the United Kingdom, with more than 11,000 employees, was quickly scaling while serving clients across the finance, telecom, media, retail and healthcare sectors. Behind the scenes, its Information Technology (IT) and security teams were facing growing challenges: too many password tools, limited visibility into access controls and widening compliance gaps as cyber threats became more sophisticated.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents become more autonomous by accessing critical systems and acting without real-time human oversight, they are evolving from productivity tools into active Non-Human Identities (NHIs) like service accounts or API keys that require the same oversight and controls as human users. This shift expands organizational attack surfaces, introducing new security risks related to overprivileged access and lateral movement of NHIs across cloud infrastructure.

As cloud-native environments become more dynamic, organizations must balance workload security, visibility and control to ensure effective privileged access management. Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPPs) help security teams identify vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across cloud infrastructure, but they typically do not directly enforce privileged access controls at the session or connection level.

As federal agencies face increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, securing high-impact systems and sensitive unclassified data has become a top priority. To support this need, Keeper Security has achieved FedRAMP Authorization at the High Impact Level for its Keeper Security Government Cloud (KSGC) platform, expanding its ability to protect the U.S. federal government’s most sensitive unclassified workloads.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) introduced its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program in early 2020 to strengthen cybersecurity across the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) and ensure that contractors handling Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) meet strict cybersecurity standards defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

As cyber threats grow more advanced, organizations need more than firewalls and traditional password policies to protect sensitive data. Two essential parts of a modern identity security strategy are Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity Governance and Administration (IGA). While IAM focuses on verifying identities and enabling secure access to systems, IGA ensures that access rights are appropriate and continuously monitored.

Managing user access across the entire employee lifecycle has become increasingly complex for modern IT and security teams. From provisioning new hires and modifying existing permissions during role changes to quickly deprovisioning departing employees, organizations must maintain granular access controls without disrupting operations. To keep up with the growth of hybrid and remote work, modern Identity Lifecycle Management (ILM) is essential for organizations to mitigate identity-based security risks.

Non-human identities have become one of the most overlooked yet exploited attack surfaces in the modern enterprise. NHIs are entities that interact with systems and services but are not tied to a physical user. As organizations expand across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, thousands of machine-based identities are silently running critical operations, yet most are unmanaged, invisible and vulnerable to abuse.

According to ConductorOne’s 2024 Identity Security Outlook Report, 24% of security leaders say keeping up with new technological advances and attack vectors is their biggest obstacle. Addressing this challenge requires modern solutions that can adapt quickly, centralize visibility and protect privileged access.