Identity Under Siege: The Rise of Machine Accounts & Everyday Cyber Risks

As businesses continue to adopt cloud technologies, IoT devices, and automation, the number of machine identities is skyrocketing. While organisations invest heavily in protecting human identities, machine identities often remain unmanaged, creating a massive, invisible attack surface for cybercriminals to exploit.

Keynote Talk: “Rise of the Machines”
Chris Owen, Managing Director of dotnext Europe LTD, will deliver a fascinating keynote exploring the rise of machine identities in modern IT environments. With a staggering 42–92 machine identities for every human account, these digital identities can be weaponised by attackers if left unsecured.

• Discover the real-world risks posed by machine identities.
• Learn how seemingly harmless, everyday actions—like pushing code to GitHub—can expose critical credentials.
• Gain practical insights into protecting your organisation from machine identity threats.

Live Hacking Demo: The Invisible Threat
Experience a live, step-by-step demonstration of an identity-based attack in action. Chris will showcase how attackers use publicly available tools to exploit mismanaged machine identities.

• See how AWS keys can be discovered in less than 90 seconds.
• Watch the attacker gain unauthorised access to cloud resources.
• Learn about simple, effective countermeasures to mitigate these risks.

Special Guest Speaker:
Josh Levett is a PhD student in the Cyber Security and Privacy Research Group at the University of York. His research focuses on Internet architecture, Internet governance, and internetwork routing protocols. Josh is also part of the SYSTRON Lab, an experimental laboratory in the department looking at system and network interoperability, especially in areas such as IoT and thread devices.

Interactive Q&A and Networking
Following the talks and demo, we’ll open the floor for an interactive Q&A session – your chance to ask the experts about identity-based attacks, best practices, and strategies for securing digital assets.

Afterward, enjoy informal networking over refreshments, meet industry professionals, and connect with fellow attendees from organisations across Yorkshire.