What Is An Insider Threat? How To Prevent It?

By Author: Reinfosec
Total Articles: 10
Comment this article

Did you know that Insider Threats are nearly impossible to predict? Because, just like betrayal, it never comes from our adversaries. Insider threats emerge from people who are closely working with you in your organisation. They involve trusted personnel with access to sensitive information. Hence, it takes a combination of technical control, employee education and continuous monitoring. Through this blog, let’s explore the nuances of Insider Threats and how to mitigate them successfully.

What is an Insider Threat?
The rise of insider threats has been at an alarming rate in recent years. You might get a picture of an enraged employee with a horrific background score when you hear “Insider Threats”. In reality, insider threats are very subtle and often extremely difficult to anticipate. Any type of harm that comes from within an organisation can be classified as Insider Threats.

Usually, they revolve around people with access to sensitive data in a company. This includes employees, contractors and management as well. These malicious insider threats are basically classified into two types:

Malicious ...
... Insiders: These are individuals who will steal sensitive data, sabotage computer systems and get involved in other malicious activities that could bring harm to the company.
Negligent Insiders: These are people who unintentionally share sensitive information, fall for phishing scams and commit mistakes that lead to security breaches.
When it comes to understanding insider threats, there can be multiple factors that contribute to the motives behind committing such things. These include job satisfaction, unpleasant work culture and personal motivation. Insider threats are more dangerous than external ones because you can’t possibly stop them through perimeter security walls and they can always bypass the traditional defense.

Why Insider Threats are Dangerous?
Individuals who commit insider threats often have a deep understanding of the organisation’s systems and procedures. Hence, exploitation of a company’s threat can be considered as the most dangerous aspect of them all. Even though insider threats won’t have a significant impact immediately, the long-term consequences of insider threats can be beyond imagination.

Due to its unpredictable nature, the financial loss that comes with insider threats is also susceptible to changes. The overall financial toll of an insider threat can be staggeringly huge. Data breaches, system sabotage and malicious virus uploads can lead to direct losses to the company. The lost revenue and the expenses to rebuild those would vary depending on the value of the stolen or destroyed intellectual property.

One single insider threat incident can have a huge impact on a company’s reputation. Data breaches will result in loss of consumer trust, ultimately leading to reputational damages. Due to its nuanced nature, the challenges of detecting and preventing insider threats are particularly difficult. Preventing insider threats can be tough due to the following reasons:

Familiarity & Trust: Since it always comes from somebody within the company, their activities won’t be that much suspicious.
Insider Information: The confidentiality level of such information is usually very high and typical security checkups might overlook it.
Evolving Tactics: The upgradation rate of insider threats makes it harder to trace or prevent.
Common Insider Threat Tactics
As the challenges surrounding digital safety grow stronger every day, companies must install a robust cybersecurity system to protect themselves from malicious attacks. By understanding their fundamental types, companies can be vigilant about such attacks. Let’s take a look at some of the common insider threats:

Data Theft: This is one of the most common types of insider threat. It involves stealing valuable information and selling it for personal gain.
Sabotage: This happens when attackers intentionally damage or mess up the company’s systems to disrupt the operations.
Fraud: Fraudulent may include falsifying records, money embezzlement and any other illegal activities that might harm the company.
Apart from the above mentioned, there is one more way in which companies might face cyber attacks. They are called Negligent Insiders. These are people who commit insider threats without having any clue of what they are doing. Some of the common negligent insider activities include:

Accidental Data Sharing: This happens when people unintentionally share or loop unauthorised people into sensitive company information.
Phishing Scams: In this case, insiders might be the victim of a phishing scam which would lead to their official account getting hacked.
Weak Passwords: When a company is using weak or easily guessable passwords, the chances of their system getting hacked will be very high.
Understanding the importance of developing strong cybersecurity is essential for companies to develop an effective online security system in place. Let’s explore some of the strategies that can be used to prevent insider threats.

What Are the Ways to Prevent Insider Threats?
A robust security culture is essential for preventing insider threats. By implementing a structured security awareness culture, companies can make their work environment more resilient. Some of the general ways to prevent such malicious threats are:

The access control for sensitive information can be provided only to individuals who possess certain job responsibilities.
Implement data encryption to effectively protect sensitive information from going to unauthorized individuals.
Every company must educate their employees about cybersecurity and how to recognise or handle such situations.
Continuous monitoring of employees is required to track signs of suspicious activities and unusual behavioural patterns.
Conduct regular security checkups to make sure that the company is up to date with the latest version of online security.
By installing the above-mentioned practices, companies can effectively manage or handle online security-compromising situations.

Conclusion
With strong preventive measures and a robust security culture, companies can effectively minimise their vulnerability towards insider threats. Even with the best practices, insider threats can still occur. Having an impromptu incident response system in place will help in effectively addressing those incidents. However, it is important to get a consultation from a professional cybersecurity expert to be updated about your company’s security systems. With expert guidance, companies can be vigilant about all rising concerns and have safety measures in place to counter them.