NHI Glossary

Clear definitions for every term in the non-human identity world — service accounts, API keys, OAuth tokens, AI agents, and related compliance concepts.

Core NHI Vocabulary

Non-Human Identity (NHI)Service Account Technical Account API Key OAuth Token Application Secret Machine Identity Machine Certificate Automation Bot Orphaned Account Dormant Token Secret Rotation Secret Leakage Least Privilege

AI Agents & Risk

AI Agent Agentic AI MCP (Model Context Protocol)MCP Server Agentic Identity Shadow AI Shadow IT Over-Privileged NHI Blast Radius Toxic Combination Offboarding / Deprovisioning Supply-Chain Attack

Adjacent Categories

IAM (Identity & Access Management)IGA (Identity Governance & Administration)PAM (Privileged Access Management)ITDR (Identity Threat Detection & Response)ISPM (Identity Security Posture Management)SSPM (SaaS Security Posture Management)CIEM (Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management)CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker)Zero Trust MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)SSO (Single Sign-On)

Compliance & Regulation

NIS2 DORA GDPR ANSSI ReCyF Objective 13 EU AI Act ISO 27001 SecNumCloud OWASP NHI Top 10 Digital Sovereignty