Increased Exposure to Cyber threats accompanying the Prolific Expansion of Machine Identities among Organizations
The identity security company, CyberArk, has recently released its 2025 State of Machine Identity Report, shedding light on the increasing risks in machine identity security for Australian organisations. The report highlights the growing use of machine-to-machine communication and rapid digital transformation as significant factors contributing to these risks.
Responsibilities for preventing machine identity-related compromises are split among security (54%), development (24%), and platform (12%) teams. However, less than half of Australian organisations have a dedicated machine identity security program, which is 13% below the global average.
The report reveals that over two-thirds (69%) of Australian security leaders have experienced at least one certificate-related outage in the past year, with 63% experiencing outages monthly and 33% weekly. These outages can have real business impacts, including application downtime and unauthorised access.
Nearly half of Australian security leaders reported security incidents or breaches caused by compromised machine identities. The majority of these incidents were linked to SSL/TLS certificates (45%). The lack of a cohesive machine identity security strategy is the biggest concern for 39% of security leaders.
As artificial intelligence adoption increases, so does the number of machine identities. Eighty-one percent of Australian security leaders anticipate the number of machine identities in their organisation to increase. Over two-thirds (73%) predict that machine identities will grow by up to 50%, and 6% project radical growth of more than 50%.
The report also emphasises the importance of securing AI models from manipulation and theft, with 77% of security leaders stating that this means putting greater emphasis on the need for machine identity authentication and authorisation. Kurt Sand, from CyberArk, emphasises the urgency for security leaders to establish a comprehensive, end-to-end machine identity security strategy to prevent potential attacks and outages, especially as AI agents continue to rise and the quantum attack timeline shortens.
Seventy-six percent of security leaders believe machine identity security will play a vital role in securing the future of AI. Despite many organisations having some form of machine identity security program, many are still immature. Organisations are struggling to keep up with the growth and complexity of machine identities, leading to siloed approaches to securing machine identities.
The 2025 State of Machine Identity Report was published by Venafi in 2021, and for Australia, the report highlighted increasing risks in machine identity security due to rapid digital transformation and the growing use of machine-to-machine communication. The report serves as a call to action for security leaders to prioritise machine identity security in their organisations to protect against potential threats and ensure business continuity.
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