Lost ships in the fog: the hidden machine identity problem

Imagine you're a lighthouse keeper responsible for tracking all the ships in your waters. Every night you scan the horizon, ensuring every vessel is accounted for and safely navigating the channels. But by morning, new ships have appeared—unregistered, untracked, and moving through the fog without warning. Where did they come from? How many more are out there beyond your line of sight? Without a reliable way to identify them, your carefully maintained navigation system is at risk of chaos.

That’s the reality organizations face with machine identities—service accounts, bots, and RPAs that are created and used without clear oversight. They emerge silently across IT environments like ships appearing in the fog, often unnoticed, introducing security risks and operational complexity. Machine Identity Security (MIS)’s new AI Machine Account Discovery feature is the beacon that cuts through the mist, continuously scanning key environments like Active Directory and Entra to identify machine identities with AI-driven precision. It brings clarity, control, and security to an often overlooked yet critical aspect of identity management.

How Machine Identity Security’s AI Machine Account Discovery works
At its core, AI Machine Account Discovery automates the discovery of machine identities based on specific attributes, such as:

• Common machine account naming patterns
• Non-expiring passwords (a major red flag for security risk)
• Other key indicators that distinguish machine accounts from human ones

This feature runs seamlessly in the background, providing daily insights into newly discovered machine accounts. More importantly, it eliminates the guesswork—administrators don’t just see a list of accounts; they see why each account was flagged as a machine identity. This level of transparency allows teams to quickly verify and take action, reducing security blind spots and operational burdens.

When MIS admins log in to SailPoint, they’ll be greeted with a billboard displaying exactly how many new machine accounts have been discovered since their last session. With a simple click, they can access the full list and take immediate action—classifying accounts, assigning ownership, and ensuring proper governance.

The impact for Machine Identity Security
Many organizations today struggle with machine identity sprawl—identities created for automation, integrations, and processes that often lack clear ownership or governance. These unmanaged accounts increase risk and complicate compliance efforts. AI Machine Account Discovery solves this by:

✅ Delivering continuous visibility – No more waiting for audits or relying on outdated reports. Organizations gain real-time awareness of all their machine identities.

✅ Reducing manual work – Security and IT teams spend less time tracking accounts manually and more time securing them. The feature surfaces relevant accounts automatically, streamlining efforts.

✅ Improving security and compliance – By providing clear ownership and automated classification, organizations can reduce risk exposure and strengthen compliance with identity governance policies.

Beyond discovery: organizing machine identities effectively
Discovery is only the first step. Many organizations have machine identities spread across various governance models, making effective management difficult. Machine Identity Security helps identify these accounts and integrates them into a structured identity governance approach. This ensures that machine identities are properly classified, secured, and monitored as part of an organization’s broader security framework.

With Machine Identity Security’s AI Machine Account Discovery, organizations no longer have to navigate blindly through the fog of machine identities. By providing continuous visibility and automated identification, it strengthens security, reduces operational overhead, and ensures compliance in an increasingly automated world.

Ready to see it in action? Schedule a demo today.