SpyCloud 2026 Identity Threat Report Finds Non-Human Identities Are Now the Leading Path into the Enterprise

Non-human identities (NHIs), which are AI agents, service accounts, API keys, and authentication tokens that connect to internal systems, have become attackers' most common entry point into organizations, with 31% of breaches starting this way. Despite 95% of organizations believing they monitor NHI exposures, only 36% actually do, creating a dangerous gap where these identities often stay compromised for months because nobody actively manages them. The report found that 68% of organizations experienced identity-based attacks in the survey period, averaging eight events each.