Internal Threats – Understanding the Warning Signs
With much of the current news highlighting foreign information security threats, many organizations have naturally focused on reducing exposure to “outside” threats, however, some of the most critical risks may be initiated internally, behind sophisticated security applications and processes. Several high-profile data breaches in 2018 have been perpetrated by “insiders” – employees; the people you typically trust the most.
Employers have discovered the price of not having the proper governance and security processes and controls in place ensure internal risks are properly mitigated. This lesson has become painfully clear to a number of organizations recently. For example, at Tesla an insider was discovered stealing and sabotaging manufacturing software. An insider at Punjab National Bank colluded with a customer to commit fraudulent transactions to the amount of $1.8 billion dollars. And at Coca-Cola, an insider absconded with sensitive data pertaining to 8,000 Coca-Cola employees.
The list of acts regarding corporate espionage is continuing to grow. In may instances, organizations will have the proper policies, processes, and controls to ensure security of their assets, particularly data, against external threats, but further vigilance is required against internal threats. Addressing these risks will require moving beyond simply performing initial employee screening and often cumbersome access reviews. Management must maintain focus on threats from within and have awareness of the warning signs which may suggest malicious activity in order to effectively detect and mitigate these risks. Writer Jai Vijayan’s latest article on Dark Reading offers several methods for identifying and addressing risks from within.