Securing Non-Human Identities (NHIs) in Cloud-Native Healthcare Systems

Authors: Anjan Gundaboina

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37082/IJIRMPS.v13.i5.232621

Short DOI: https://doi.org/g964mf

Country: United States

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Abstract: In the recent past, industry-wise virtualization changes and alterations to cloud computing have provided better adaptability, care integration, capabilities, and remote care services. However, these advances have provided them with new problems, specifically regarding cybersecurity, especially in the case of NHI medical devices, services, applications, and agents that act freely within these environments. NHIs communicate within different cloud settings, sharing and retrieving patient information, which is commonly done with little to no supervision. The development of the Internet of Medical Things and the microservice architecture in the health sector has upped the risks needed to secure NHI. This paper examines a holistic approach to protecting NHIs in cloud-native healthcare ecosystems. First, we discuss the prevailing architectural strategies in such systems and then describe the issues particular to NHIs. We then review research and guidelines on managing NHI and Cloud security from literatures and standards. Our proposed approach comes with a layered identity security architecture that follows the principles of Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA), non-human identity governance, human behavior analysis, and identity-based access control. We evaluate the developed approach using a realistic imitative hospital network comprising various IoMT devices and cloud services. Concerning the findings from the network traffic analysis, the results depicted have highlighted the aspects of anomaly detection, attack risks, and the relative HIPAA and NIST cybersecurity frameworks compliance. This suggests the need to redesign identity in healthcare to include other layers so as to realize the health system's integrity and patient safety.

Keywords: Non-Human Identity (NHI), Cloud-Native Healthcare, Zero Trust Architecture, Behavioral Analytics, Identity and Access Management (IAM).

Paper Id: 232621

Published On: 2025-10-15

Published In: Volume 13, Issue 5, September-October 2025

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