For a long time, technology—and especially cybersecurity—has carried a reputation for being complex, intimidating, and ultimately “not my job” for anyone outside the IT or Security teams. However, that perception is precisely what prevents good security programs from becoming great ones.
If you follow the headlines, you’ve probably seen phrases like “identity-based attacks” or “the identity was compromised.” While these terms make sense in the security world, to many others they’re confusing—or meaningless.
In our field, we often use terms like “human identities,” “machine identities,” and now “AI identities.” These are concise and precise terms for those of us “in the know,” but they can create a barrier for others—making security feel abstract, overly technical, or like someone else’s responsibility.
As a result, this language barrier leads to a dangerous misunderstanding: the belief that security is solely the responsibility of the IT and Security teams. This is how companies end up with cultures where people assume they’re protected simply because a security team exists.
If we want to change that, we have to reframe the conversation around identity security.
It starts with a simple shift in thinking:
Identity security isn’t just about securing different types of identities—it’s about securing everything a person is responsible for. Security starts with the human.
What Is an Identity, Really?
In security, “identity” can mean many things. We talk about:
- Human identities — primary user accounts, admin accounts
- Machine identities —service accounts, certificates, API keys
- AI identities — automated agents making decisions and executing actions
But outside the security community, these terms can sound confusing—or even absurd. “Human identity” sounds redundant, “machine identity” sounds like an oxymoron, and “AI identity” sounds like a sci-fi movie.
Ask a department head in Marketing, Sales, or HR if their human, machine, and AI identities are secured, and you’re likely to get a blank stare—or a quick dismissal that it’s “not their problem.”
Let’s go back to the basics. The term identity generally refers to the attributes that uniquely describe a human being. In the workplace, that translates to a person’s role, their responsibilities, and everything they own in order to do their job.
So when we talk about securing “the identity,” we’re really talking about securing your role, your access, your data, and your tools—everything you use to get your job done. Identity security isn’t just about locking down an account or certificate; it’s about protecting what people are responsible for—and making sure they understand that responsibility.
How Do We Bring Non-Security Experts on Board?
Once we reframe identity security as protecting what individuals are responsible for, it becomes easier for us to engage every team in a way they’ll understand.
If you ask a Marketing, Sales, or HR leader whether their team members know the access, data, and tools they rely on daily, the answer will almost certainly be “yes.” And if they already understand what they rely on to do their jobs, it naturally follows that they should also ensure those things are secure.
Consider a Marketing employee who:
- Uses a badge to enter the building
- Logs into their workstation with a username and password
- Manages access to a third-party design tool
- Oversees a service account for that tool
They may not understand every technical detail behind these systems, but they do know they own them and are responsible for making sure they’re used properly. We just need to help them see that ownership extends to security.
If something stops working, they know to call IT. We need to build the same instinct for security: if something isn’t being managed securely—or if they’re unsure—they should reach out to us, the Security team.
The point is: they own it, but it’s our job to help them recognize that ownership. Security isn’t just the job of the technical teams—it’s a shared responsibility. And the clearer we can make that connection for business owners, the better equipped they’ll be to protect what they’re responsible for.
Ownership Is the Path to Scale
Enterprise environments are more complex than ever. Machine identities already far outnumber human ones, and the rise of AI agents will only widen that gap.
If we expect Security teams alone to manage and secure every system, service, and account, we’re setting them up for failure. No team, no matter how talented, can keep up with the sheer scale of modern enterprise environments.
That’s why we need to focus on scaling ownership.
When every employee understands what they’re responsible for—and when we, as security professionals, make it clear how their responsibilities connect to security—we create a model that actually works. Security stops being something done by a small team in a silo and becomes something distributed across the organization.
But this doesn’t happen with culture alone. To scale ownership effectively, organizations need visibility into who owns what, consistent processes for validating that ownership, and tools that can make accountability manageable. Without that, we risk sliding back into old habits where only IT and Security are expected to carry the load.
That shift—combining culture with the right technology—makes security scalable, practical, and sustainable.
Because many hands don’t just make light work—
They make for a secure company.
