Insider threat incidents have become a regular occurrence across all industries in recent years. However, many organisations struggle to understand and manage emerging cyber risks in an increasingly complex data driven society. As our reliance on data, and interconnectivity increases, developing the resilience to withstand, manage and even proactively detect these cyber incidents has never been more important.
47% of organisations in 2016-2017 identified a malicious insider or criminal intent as the root cause of their data breach and an attack by a malicious insider or criminal is costlier than system glitches and/ or negligence. (Global Data Breach Survey, Ponemon Institute, 2017) (
Organisations are implementing increasingly sophisticated physical and cyber security measures to protect their assets from external threats, but the biggest threat to security in terms of financial loss and reputational damage comes from the human element; insiders. Until now, organisations have had no other option but to engage reactively, at the point of exposure, once an insider has effected the event and it has been detected.
What is insider threat
An insider threat is defined when a current or former employee, contractor or business partner with authorised access to your organisation, premises, computer systems and information misuses, or has the intention to exploit, the organisation’s assets to commit a malicious act or damage their employer. This includes not only fraud, sabotage of computer systems, theft of intellectual property, espionage and unauthorised trading, but also accidental negligence (the human factor).
Be preparedAlthough staff error (26%) is a bigger source of security breaches than malicious insiders (10%) or organised crime (23%) (Global State of Information Security Survey, 2015), Insider Risk has a disproportionate impact on your organisation and accounts for the highest costs.
Active assessment and monitoring to identify and manage staff resilience and motivation can help to reduce the potential for all three of these scenarios by identifying individuals and networks that may be a threat. |
impact on your people |
Aside from the monetary or asset value, a breach by an insider creates an atmosphere of disbelief and distrust among personnel and results in increased monitoring and security, far-reaching reputational damage and the questioning of values by the workforce. All of which lead to fissures in team coherence and more widespread intangible damage across the organisation. That is, unless identified early and managed effectively.
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THE EARLY WARNING SIGNS
A decline in morale due to organisational change, a highly competitive mandate (gaining and maintaining clientele and personal portfolios), interpersonal conflict within teams or with supervisors, a lack of mentoring, inadequate training, perception of unfairness and loss of corporate identity are just a few of the factors that contribute to workplace stressors and overall organisational health. However, underpinning these are the psychological factors which contribute to our ability to cope with challenges and change.
Monitoring internal (psychological) and external (circumstantial) stressors provides the early warning indicators you need to to ensure your organisation is doing everything it can to reduce the potential for insider risk.
Monitoring internal (psychological) and external (circumstantial) stressors provides the early warning indicators you need to to ensure your organisation is doing everything it can to reduce the potential for insider risk.
WHAT Can you do?
There are three key strands to protecting your organisation; personnel security, cyber security and physical security. J2SC has expertise which includes guidance and tools designed to help organisations reduce the risk of an insider by implementing protective monitoring practices for the first two strands; personnel and cyber security, in order to:
J2S Insider Risk can assess your organisation's susceptibility to insider risk to support you in developing an intervention strategy to mitigate this risk.
- Reduce the risk of recruiting staff who are likely to present a security concern
- Minimise the likelihood of existing employees becoming a security concern
- Reduce the risk of insider activity, and protect the organisation’s assets and where necessary, carry out investigations or provide evidence for disciplinary procedures
- Implement protective monitoring security measures in a way that is proportionate to the risk
J2S Insider Risk can assess your organisation's susceptibility to insider risk to support you in developing an intervention strategy to mitigate this risk.