The Corporate IT Domain: Your Most Mature Security Foundation—And Its Hidden Risks

Part 3 of our 8-part series on the enterprise Non-Human Identity attack surface

After exploring how the User Domain creates sprawling NHI populations through productivity activities, we turn to what should be the most secure part of your infrastructure: the Corporate IT Domain. If you're just joining our series, we recommend reading our strategic overview that introduced the six enterprise domains where machine identities operate and pose security risks.

The Corporate IT Domain represents your traditional enterprise infrastructure—the operational backbone that supports business operations through on-premises servers, network infrastructure, directory services, legacy applications, and hybrid cloud connections. This is where decades of security investment should provide the strongest foundation for NHI governance.

The Maturity Advantage

Unlike the rapidly evolving domains we've explored, Corporate IT benefits from established security frameworks, mature tooling, and well-understood operational practices. Organizations have invested heavily in Active Directory management, Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions, network monitoring platforms, and identity governance systems.

Decades of Established Corporate IT Security Controls

This maturity creates several security advantages:

Established RBAC Models: Role-based access control has been refined over decades, providing clear frameworks for permission management and access governance.

Mature Audit Processes: Compliance requirements have driven comprehensive logging, monitoring, and review processes that provide visibility into account activities.

Contained Infrastructure Boundaries: Unlike cloud environments, traditional IT infrastructure has clearly defined perimeters that limit the potential scope of lateral movement.

Regulatory Compliance: Compliance frameworks enforce baseline security hygiene, including regular access reviews, password policies, and change management processes.

The NHI Population in Corporate IT

Despite this security maturity, the Corporate IT Domain harbors a substantial population of machine identities that often operate outside modern security controls:

Active Directory Service Accounts: System automation relies on service accounts that often accumulate permissions over time without regular review or cleanup processes.

Network Device Credentials: Switches, routers, firewalls, and other network infrastructure use shared credentials that rarely change and often lack centralized management.

Legacy Application Service Accounts: Older business applications depend on embedded service accounts with hardcoded credentials stored in configuration files or scripts.

SSH Keys: Server access and automation scripts use SSH key pairs that may persist for years without rotation or lifecycle management.

PKI Certificates: System-to-system authentication relies on certificates that may have extended validity periods and minimal monitoring.

Risk Assessment: Low but Not Negligible

We classify the Corporate IT Domain as low risk, but several factors require ongoing attention:

Legacy System Integration: MODERATE RISK - Older systems may lack integration with modern identity management platforms, relying instead on static credentials and shared accounts for operational continuity.

Security Tooling Maturity: STRONG MITIGATION - Decades of investment in Active Directory, PAM solutions, network monitoring, and identity governance platforms provide comprehensive security capabilities.

Governance Complexity: STRONG MITIGATION - Well-understood RBAC models, established approval workflows, and mature audit processes enable effective access management.

Attack Surface Size: STRONG MITIGATION - Infrastructure boundaries are clearly defined and relatively contained compared to cloud environments.

Blast Radius Potential: STRONG MITIGATION - Network segmentation, additional perimeter controls, and role-based access controls limit the scope of potential compromise.

Regulatory Compliance: STRONG MITIGATION - Compliance requirements enforce baseline security hygiene and regular access reviews.

Integration of Legacy High Risk Technologies and Applications

The Persistent Vulnerabilities

Despite its security advantages, the Corporate IT Domain faces several ongoing challenges that create NHI security risks:

Credential Reuse and Accumulation

Static passwords and service account credentials used across multiple systems create opportunities for lateral movement. Over time, service accounts tend to accumulate permissions as business requirements change, but cleanup rarely occurs.

Legacy System Integration Gaps

Older systems frequently lack integration with modern identity management platforms, operating instead with local accounts, shared credentials, and minimal logging capabilities.

Hardcoded Credential Persistence

Configuration files, deployment scripts, and legacy applications often contain cleartext credentials that persist across system updates and migrations.

Privilege Accumulation Over Time

Service accounts collect permissions incrementally as business needs evolve, but organizations rarely implement systematic privilege reviews or cleanup processes for machine identities.

The Strategic Opportunity

The Corporate IT Domain's security maturity creates a unique strategic opportunity: it can serve as the foundation for extending NHI security practices to less mature domains. The governance frameworks, tooling platforms, and operational processes developed for traditional IT can be adapted and extended to address machine identity challenges across the entire enterprise.

Organizations that leverage their Corporate IT security investments as a platform for enterprise-wide NHI governance consistently achieve better outcomes than those trying to build security frameworks from scratch in newer domains.

Current State: Foundation Solid, Extensions Needed

Most enterprise security teams have Corporate IT fundamentals well in hand. The challenge lies in extending existing capabilities to address modern NHI requirements:

Identity Lifecycle Management: Existing IAM platforms can be enhanced to include service account and certificate lifecycle management with automated provisioning and deprovisioning workflows.

Privileged Access Management: PAM solutions can be extended beyond human access to include service account password rotation, session recording, and just-in-time access for automated processes.

Security Information and Event Management: SIEM platforms already collect extensive Corporate IT logs—they need enhanced correlation rules and machine learning models optimized for machine identity behavior patterns.

Governance and Compliance: Existing access review processes can be expanded to include regular certification of service accounts, SSH keys, and system certificates.

Strategic Recommendations for Corporate IT Enhancement

Based on our analysis of enterprise implementations, we recommend building upon existing strengths:

1. Extend Existing Frameworks

Rather than implementing separate NHI security tools, extend your current PAM, IAM, and SIEM platforms to include machine identities. This leverages existing operational knowledge and reduces complexity.

2. Implement Systematic Lifecycle Management

Deploy automated processes for service account creation, modification, and decommissioning that integrate with your existing change management workflows.

3. Enhance Legacy System Integration

Prioritize integration projects that connect older systems to centralized identity management platforms, focusing first on systems with elevated privileges or sensitive data access.

Business Impact and ROI

Corporate IT Domain improvements typically deliver the strongest ROI of any NHI security investment because they build upon existing platforms and processes. Organizations report significant efficiency gains from:

• Reduced Manual Access Management: Automated service account provisioning and deprovisioning
• Improved Compliance Posture: Systematic access reviews that include machine identities
• Enhanced Incident Response: Better visibility into service account activities during security investigations
• Operational Efficiency: Centralized credential management for infrastructure automation

Looking Ahead: The Platform Strategy

The Corporate IT Domain's true strategic value lies in its potential to serve as the security platform for your entire enterprise. The governance frameworks, security tooling, and operational practices developed here can and should be extended to secure machine identities across all domains.

As we'll explore in our next post on the Supply Chain Domain, the trust relationships and vendor integrations that extend your enterprise create complex NHI security challenges that require the solid foundation that Corporate IT provides.

About this series: This week-long exploration examines how business functions create NHI attack surfaces and provides actionable frameworks for security leaders who need to balance business enablement with risk management, based on comprehensive analysis of enterprise domains, attack patterns, and strategic risk assessment.