Machine Identity Management
Protect machines and devices in connected environments from digital threats.
Security for connected devices and industrial machines
How can we ensure that machines and devices in an increasingly networked production environment are adequately protected to minimise potential cyber threats?
The answer lies in Machine Identity Management, an emerging security discipline that focuses on managing identities for machines, devices, and applications. While traditional identity management aims to manage and protect user identities, Machine Identity Management focuses on the security and authentication of non-human entities.
How can machines and devices be effectively protected against cyber threats?
This is where Machine Identity Management comes into play. It is an emerging security discipline that focuses on managing the identities of machines, devices, applications, and automated systems.While traditional identity management revolves around human users, Machine Identity Management safeguards and authenticates non-human entities across complex, networked environments.
In classic IAM, the focus is on verifying human identities, managing their access rights, and preventing unauthorized access.
Machine Identity Management, by contrast, ensures that servers, IoT devices, industrial machines, containers, workloads, and software applications can identify and authenticate themselves securely.
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Machine Identities in Practice
Securing machine identities presents several real-world challenges:
Legacy systems
Many industrial machines are outdated, lack modern security features, or cannot be easily updated. Integrating them into secure architectures often requires custom solutions.
Heterogeneous device landscapes
Industrial environments typically consist of diverse machine types with varying security requirements.
Continuous monitoring
Machine identities must be monitored and updated in real time to respond quickly to emerging threats. Implementing a comprehensive Machine Identity Management strategy requires a profound understanding of existing infrastructures to ensure strong security while maintaining operational continuity. Both hardware-based and software-based approaches play a critical role in securing machine identities.
Hardware Security Modules (HSM)
To secure machine identities, Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) offer essential protection mechanisms:
- Strong cryptographic keys
- Secure machine-to-machine communication
- Tamper-resistant key storage
- Safe processing and lifecycle management of digital certificates
HSMs drastically reduce the risk of key exposure and form a backbone for trustworthy machine authentication.
Software-Based Management of Machine Identities
In addition to HSMs, software solutions are critical for a complete Machine Identity Management strategy. Modern platforms provide:
Centralized monitoring and lifecycle management
They offer real-time insights into machine identities and their security status.
Automated certificate rotation
Automation ensures that machine identities always use valid certificates, which minimizes the risk of using expired or compromised credentials. A recent example is Google’s initiative to reduce the maximum lifetime of publicly trusted TLS certificates to 90 days. The goal: moving away from “baroque, time-consuming, error-prone issuance processes” toward full automation.
However, shorter certificate lifetimes can significantly increase operational workload if manual processes remain in place. In times of skilled-labor shortages, automation becomes not only a security necessity but also a cost-saving measure by reducing manual effort.
Logging and monitoring
Robust logging and analytics help detect anomalies early. Software solutions can alert security teams to potential threats and suspicious activity.
A Holistic Strategy for Machine Identity Security
Combining HSMs, software platforms, and custom integrations into existing infrastructures, especially legacy systems, is essential for comprehensive machine identity protection.
These measures address security vulnerabilities and establish the groundwork for a robust security architecture in industrial environments.