A recent study by Crowd Research Partners confirmed that almost 90% of organizations feel vulnerable to insider attacks and cyber threats
Bring your own device policies, work from home policies, and flexible cloud adoption strategies have significantly improved businesses’ agility. But, this has also exposed sensitive business data making them far more readily accessible – presenting a substantial IT security challenge.
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The research reported that 53% of companies confirmed experiencing an insider attack in the past twelve months. Additionally, 27% of respondents confirmed that insider attacks have become more frequent recently.
Unfortunately, in today’s cloud-based IT environments, organizations struggle to detect careless or anomalous employee behaviors. This is why enterprises need to revise their approaches to data protection. Before deploying any new security solution, it is crucial to understand the four most common insider threats faced by companies today:
The third-party employee
Third parties remain overlooked while firms plan their security strategies. These insiders usually act as fully integrated members of the organization, even while working remotely. Few of them might even have in-depth familiarity with the internal processes and controls, making them as knowledgeable about security procedures as any other internal employee.
The rogue employee
The rogue employees are the malicious insiders who set out to steal critical company data, either from a desire for profit, vengeance or even for a competitor’s benefit. Unfortunately, insiders with malicious intent always have the upper hand in data theft, since they have legitimate credentials to bypass the majority of the organizations’ security features.
The hacked account
Compromised credentials are one of the most significant dangers faced by enterprises. Having access to user names and passwords, outside parties can easily enter corporate networks through legitimate means to evade security systems. Breaches involving credential compromise can take time to identify and remediate.
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The careless worker
While dissatisfied or resentful workers clearly pose a serious threat to organizational security, a less obvious but potential threat rests with happy, but careless employees. They are highly challenging to identify and pin-point. These individuals may compromise security unintentionally by losing organizational credentials, using unsecured public Wi-Fi, clicking on suspicious email links, being followed into the restricted office areas through an access-controlled door, or by sharing sensitive information with unauthorized parties. Each of these mishaps offers the criminals an opportunity to breach the enterprise.
The unpredictable nature of insider threats calls for a multi-faceted, proactive solution as the best form of defense. The growing adoption of cloud has given rise to new security concerns –insider threats being the largest and trickiest one. Fortunately, identifying these hidden threats and deploying appropriate security solutions promptly can mitigate and even eliminate the risks.
