Insider Threats: How to Mitigate Risks from Within Your Organization
5 minute read
As cybercrime continues to rise, businesses are becoming more vigilant in protecting themselves against external threats. However, what many executives fail to recognize is that the greatest threat to their organization's cybersecurity could be insider threats, hidden internal security risks within their own walls.
Insider threats, whether intentional or accidental, can cause significant damage to an organization's reputation, finances, and even its very existence. Recent statistics show that insider threats are increasing in both frequency and severity, making it crucial for executives to be aware of these risks and take proactive security measures to mitigate insider threats.
What is an Insider Threat?
Insider threats are cybersecurity risks that come from individuals within an organization who have authorized access to sensitive data, systems, or infrastructure, presenting internal security risks. Examples of an insider may include:
A person the organization trusts, including employees, organization members, and those to whom the organization has given sensitive information, such as financial data, business strategy, and organizational strengths and weaknesses.
A person given a badge or access device identifying them as someone with regular or continuous access (e.g., an employee or member of an organization, a contractor, a vendor, a custodian, or a repair person).
A person to whom the organization has supplied a computer and/or network access.
A person who has intimate knowledge about and possibly helps develop the organization’s products and services; this group includes those who know the secrets of the products that provide value to the organization.
These individuals could be current or former employees, contractors, or partners who have access to your organization's resources and can use them for malicious purposes. These insiders have further be broken down according to the type of insider threats they pose such as Negligent Insiders who pose an unitential threat due to human error and lack of security awaress. Malicious Insiders who could be current or former employees who abused their access to steal intellectual propertu for personal gains. Third-Party Insiders who could be vendors who misuse their access and compromise the security of critical data. The threats can take many forms, including data theft, intellectual property theft, financial fraud, espionage, sabotage, and even unintentional errors or omissions that could lead to security breaches.
The rise and cost of Insider Threats
Insider threats are now a growing concern as cybercriminals have begun directly soliciting the help of employees to execute ransomware attacks against their organization.
Researchers observed that the global average cost of an insider threat was $11.45 million, while the average cost of a data breach over the same period was $3.86 million. Another survey research showed that 50% of business respondents have had their employees aproached to help with ransomware attacks. A furthur 60% of the business exectutives reported they or their employees were approached directly to assist in ransomware attacks.
Insider threats pose a serious risk to organizations in terms of both financial and non-financial costs. Depending on the type of threat carried out, organizations can see significant losses due to security breaches or undergo a series of losses that amount to larger ones over time. Some of the costs organizations incur as a result of insider threats include critical data loss, security breach, operational disruptions and reputational damage.
Role of C-level excecutive to eliminate insider threats
As a C-level executive, you are responsible for safeguarding your organization against cyber threats, including insider risks. Therefore, it is essential to have a comprehensive insider threat mitigation strategy in place to minimize the risks and protect your organization's assets. Here are some best practices that you can follow to mitigate insider threats within your organization:
1. Build a strong security culture:
Creating a security-first culture that promotes cybersecurity awareness and implements best cybersecurity practices is essential for insider threat prevention. Employees should be aware of the risks of insider threats, their roles and responsibilities, and the consequences of violating security policies. Your organization should prioritize security by integrating it into every business process and practice. Have a security team develop and implement wide-sweeping security policies that include documented protocols. Security policies should cover all activity from general data usage to third-party access to incident response protocols.
2. Conduct thorough background checks:
Organizations in the financial, tech and healthcare sectors are at significant risk of insider threats due to the valuable nature of the industry's assets, data and processes.
Conducting background checks on new employees, contractors, and partners can help identify individuals with a history of insider threats, criminal activities, or other red flags in hiring, which is key for insider threat prevention.
This step will ensure that you're hiring trustworthy people and help prevent future insider threats. Develop a thorough security screening protocol for new hires that's integrated into the hiring process. This can be one of the most cost-effective methods of preventing insider threats.
3. Tailor Access Controls:
Implementing access controls is an essential step in reducing the risk of insider threats. However, it is crucial to tailor access controls to specific job roles to ensure that employees only have access to the resources necessary for their job functions. It's not enough to merely limit access to the company's most sensitive data. Suppose an employee has unnecessary access to systems or data. In that case, they may be able to exploit that access to gain access to even more sensitive information, increasing the risk of a data breach.
Conducting regular audits of employee access to data and systems can help identify potential issues before they become a problem. These audits should include an assessment of employee access rights, data usage, and application activity. The results of these audits can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the current insider threat mitigation strategy.
4. Monitor employee activity:
Monitoring employee activity can help detect suspicious behavior, such as accessing unauthorized resources, downloading sensitive data, or engaging in unusual activities. This strategy can help identify potential insider threats early, enabling you to take appropriate action before the damage is done.
Entitlement management is the IT security strategy that uses software to revoke or administer access to certain entitlements or user privileges to specific types of information. It's a method of controlling which users access which assets and when. Identity and Access Management (IAM) software automates entitlements lifecycle in response to business events to make this process easier.
5. Implement Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Solutions:
A Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution can help prevent data breaches by identifying and blocking sensitive datafrom leaving the organization, contributing to overall insider threat prevention. It can detect unauthorized access attempts and monitor employee activity on sensitive data. This solution can help minimize the risk of data loss or theft from an insider threat.
Ensure mailboxes and cloud storage are regularly archived. Implement a backup system that requires an automatic backup of files monthly. Consider also developing a disaster recovery plan in the case of accidental or intentional deletion of critical data.
6. Have an incident response plan:
Having an incident response plan in place can help you respond quickly and effectively to insider threats, minimizing the damage and restoring your operations to normalcy through timely damage control and organizational recovery. This plan should include clear steps for identifying and mitigating insider threats, as well as procedures for communicating with stakeholders, including customers and partners.
Implement ongoing monitoring of security systems and develop protocols for reporting suspicious behavior. Ensure those responsible for monitoring systems are trained on how to respond to incidents quickly. Enable alerts on all systems to receive real-time warnings of unusual user behavior.
7. Implement Two-Factor Authentication:
Enforcing two-factor authentication for employees accessing sensitive data can add an extra layer of security and reduce the risk of an insider gaining unauthorized access. It can also provide additional insights into user behavior by tracking login attempts and authentication requests.
Enfocing two-use authorization could also be key. When users need to access critical data or assets of a certain sensitivity, enforce a policy where two individual users need to authorize the activity. This is often referred to as the four-eyes principle. These kinds of assets are prime targets for would-be attackers and cannot be left unguarded. Requiring certain user roles to be involved in the authorization process further minimizes the risk of insider threats.
8. Conduct Regular Employee Training:
Users are still considered as a vulnerable link to cybersecurity thus the importance of training and proper guidance. Employee training is an essential component of a strong security culture.
Regularly conducting cybersecurity awareness training on best cybersecurity practices helps employees more effectively identify and report insider threats. Implementing an annual cybersecurity or data privacy training curriculum that is well-designed and engaging is an essential step in this effort.
It's important to emphasize the importance of staying vigilant, not sharing passwords, and immediately reporting any suspicious activity. Everyone in the organization should be familiar with your security policies and procedures and document them to prevent insider threats.
Conclusion
In conclusion, mitigating insider threats requires a proactive approach that involves creating a security-first culture, conducting thorough background checks, implementing tailored access controls, monitoring employee activity, and having an incident response plan in place. With the riht security strategies and technology, organizations can be better prepared to defend themselves against the rise of insider threats. As a C-level executive, it should be your responsibility to ensure that your organization is prepared for insider threats and takes proactive measures to mitigate them. By following these best practices, you can minimize the risks and protect your organization's assets against insider threats.
About AKATI Sekurity
AKATI Sekurity is a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) and consulting firm specialising in cybersecurity and digital forensics. With our extensive experience and capabilities in security consulting, business applications and training, we are able to customize our services to suit the needs of each client. Basically, we simplify their need for security and efficiency in daily business processes. At AKATI Sekurity, our vision is to be the premier trusted security advisor to organisations across the globe, hence creating value for our customers, shareholders and communities.
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