The Impact of Machine Identities on the
State of Cloud Native Security in 2024
Is cloud native complexity jeopardizing your data and operations?
We surveyed 800 IT security leaders to better understand current machine identity security trends in cloud native environments, paying particular attention to service accounts, workload identities and secrets.
Cloud native security incidents are intensifying—and teams are realizing the need for end-to-end machine identity security.
This year, cloud native complexity skyrocketed, and security incidents followed suit, with 86% of teams reporting at least one affecting their business.
But what specific areas are leading to the brunt of the impact? And what role do machine identities play?
Download this second annual report to get these answers and more.
88%
see access tokens and service accounts as prime targets for cyber attackers
83%
believe failing to fortify operations at the workload level makes all other security obsolete
89%
of organizations reported challenges with securing secrets at scale
Key Findings: A Snapshot
“The sleeping dragon is now awake: attackers are now actively exploring cloud native infrastructure. A massive wave of cyberattacks has now hit cloud native infrastructure, impacting most modern application environments. To make matters worse, cybercriminals are deploying AI in various ways to gain unauthorized access and exploiting machine identities using service accounts on a growing scale. The volume, variety and velocity of machine identities are becoming an attacker’s dream.”
About this Report
The Impact of Machine Identities on the State of Cloud Native Security in 2024 outlines IT security leaders’ most pressing cloud native security challenges and machine identity-related complexities, specifically focusing on service accounts, workload identities and secrets management. It also dives into rising costs, lack of policy uniformity and the gap between security and developers
To gain a clear picture of the rising frequency and intensity of cloud native security incidents, Venafi conducted an independent survey of 800 IT security leaders across the U.S., U.K., France and Germany.
The compiled data uncovered key insights, all of which answer these five primary questions:
What were the primary causes, and subsequent business impacts, of cloud native security incidents?
How are teams managing cloud native machine identities?
What challenges are teams facing relative to service accounts, workload identities, secrets and legacy modernization?
Who is typically responsible for establishing DevOps guidelines and policies? Implementing tools and controls?
To what extent are security leaders concerned about CI/CD security—and does AI magnify the scope of the issue?
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Discover how your cloud native security stacks up in this year’s report.