Extending zero trust to workloads: Applying zero trust beyond just passwords is crucial. On the human side, MFA and conditional access are standard. For workloads, we implemented a similar approach using tokens, certificates and continuous checks. When one service calls another, it presents a cryptographic token or certificate, and the target service verifies it each time it is called. In effect, every microservice needs a current “badge swipe” to access resources.One success story was our batch processing cluster. It previously relied on a service account with a static API key. We reworked it so that each node starts with a short-lived client certificate issued by our internal public key infrastructure (PKI). The servers only accept these short-lived certs. Since certificates are renewed daily, any stolen certificate quickly becomes useless. Plus, we log all certificate requests and approvals through our secure pipeline, so we always know which identities are active.We also embraced “just-in-time” privileges. Maintenance scripts and admin jobs now request elevated roles via our CIEM-based workflow instead of running with full privileges by default. An identity gets a time-bound token when needed. After the job finishes, we revoke the elevated rights. This change significantly reduced the risk window for our most critical accounts. The payoff has been intense. We went from frantic firefighting to proactive control. Developers now consider whether they need a new identity at all, sometimes, a single well-scoped account serves multiple services. And we sleep better knowing that even if one token is leaked, it remains valid for only a short time.
A roadmap for securing workload identities: Based on our journey, here are the practical steps we took:
Take inventory and classify. Discover every non-human identity. We wrote scripts to pull lists of all service accounts, keys, certs and roles from each cloud and cluster. Then, we tagged them by team and purpose. You can’t secure what you can’t see. Enforce the principle of least privilege. Audit each identity’s permissions and remove any excess permissions. We used automated tools to compare privileges to needs. Any divergence triggers an alert. This ensures no workload has more rights than necessary. Use short-lived tokens. Replace static secrets with ephemeral credentials. For example, Kubernetes pods now authenticate to cloud services using short-lived OIDC/JWT tokens or x.509 certificates rather than long-lived keys, as recommended by the SPIFFE framework. This means credentials expire automatically. We also automated the regular rotation of any remaining secrets. Just-in-time access. Integrate a CIEM or vault for time-bound privilege elevation. Engineers request the needed rights through an approval flow, and an ephemeral token is issued. This reduces the number of privileged tokens standing across clouds. Continuous monitoring. Feed machine identity activity into a cloud-aware XDR/SIEM. We monitor for anomalies, such as unknown workloads that are called sensitive APIs. By utilizing AI/ML to prioritize alerts, we can quickly identify and address any misuse of identities. Policy-driven governance. Codify identity policies in code. Whenever a workload is retired, its identity is automatically revoked. We require all identities to have an owner and an expiration date. New identities are created through pull requests, which undergo peer review and approval.Implementing these took effort, but it built lasting resilience. We moved from reactive fixes to a robust posture. Development teams still innovate quickly but within guardrails. Securing machine identities is now as embedded as securing human users. Securing the next wave of cloud identities is an ongoing task. As we expand to more cloud providers and edge devices, our policies must adapt. We’ve started exploring decentralized identity proofs (like DIDs) for IoT devices and confidential computing for sensitive workloads. However, the core principle remains: verify every identity and minimize its blast radius. Today, I’m confident in our next wave of cloud deployments. By treating workloads with the same zero-trust, identity-first rigor we apply to our users, we’ve built a foundation for secure growth. Ultimately, a machine without a validated identity is merely a vulnerable entry point; however, one with the proper controls becomes a trusted part of the system, exactly as it should be in a modern cloud. This article is published as part of the Foundry Expert Contributor Network.Want to join?
First seen on csoonline.com
Jump to article: www.csoonline.com/article/4015436/securing-the-next-wave-of-workload-identities-in-the-cloud.html
