August 15, 2022

What Are The Best Ways To Defend Against Insider Threats?

jknash@x-centric.com · 3 minute read

You might be wondering what an insider threat is; here is a little point to help clear the air. When an employee, business associate, contractor, or a person working within a firm who knows confidential organizational information causes havoc to the organization.

Therefore, an insider threat(s) can be prevented or managed by procedures, technologies, and policies. When effective practices are employed to avoid these threats, the risk of compromised confidential data will be minimized.

Organizations must be aware that data protection is not the sole responsibility of the IT security team or personnel. But it is the role of all the employees and internal personnel to guard their data.

A report states that there has been a rapid increase in insider attacks by 47% since 2018. Therefore, organizations need to buckle up, be prepared against any attack, and scrutinize possible threats because most of these threats walk through their doors daily.

Luckily, there are some preventive measures that firms need to take into consideration to protect them against looming and future threats and attacks. Read on to find out about these measures.

The Three Groups Of Insider Threats

Insider Threats can be grouped into three, one of these threats, which is also quite dangerous, is having a malicious insider(s). This consists of the people who are not loyal and they exist within your organization. They are out to cause havoc within your organization by either leaking sensitive data, money laundering, spying for competitors or countries, or harming employees.

This set of people is rare within an organization though they may have the capacity to wreak a whole business within a short time.

The second group is the people who leave your company with good or bad intentions. They often feel they need to take up the intellectual projects they have done in their previous firms to their new firms as it will give them an advantage; well, this often occurs with employees leaving a firm with good intentions. On the other hand, if an employee(s) should go with bad intentions, then the organization is on the verge of experiencing physical or data loss risks or both.

The third set of people that are likely to cause an insider attack are cybercriminals. Cybercriminals know that the closest people to you hold more sensitive data than anyone within your organization. Hackers track down these people through their emails and internet cookies.

Preventive Measures Against Insider Threats

Below are the preventive measures organizations should consider against insider threats and possible attacks:

Deactivate your former staff’s accounts

An easy way for ex-employees to access the organization’s network is through their company’s account. As the employer in an organization, it is quite easy to forget to deactivate your ex-employee account(s) immediately if an employee doesn’t work in your company anymore via contract termination or a fulfilled year of service.

The first thing to do as an employer is to deactivate their account(s) by deleting it permanently or changing their login details. Being sentimental about this will only cause you more harm than good.

Train your staff

The staff in your organization can be your greatest strengths and, in some cases, your downfall. Training your staff goes a long way to avoiding an unintentional security breach. Though training your team doesn’t help stop a malicious employee, it gives your staff suitable knowledge on ways to handle the company’s data and how to securely browse the internet. Also, it helps to make them sensitive when any other staff is doing something tricky with the company’s network.

Employees data restriction

It is essential to restrict your organization’s data access to some employees. Not all employees are mature enough to handle organizational documents professionally, and even if you have trained them regarding data security procedures, some staff can still make mistakes that can mar the affairs of your company. Also, the staff you might grant full data access to should be monitored by you as an employer.

Adopt digital surveillance

You can make use of motion sensors, video cameras, or night vision to monitor your staff’s activities. However, you have to be careful to avoid prying into their private affairs.

Enact an intense authentication procedure

Using passwords and IDs is not enough. Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all your organizational accounts.; it is a must. MFA can prevent hackers from penetrating the company’s network even if they get the chance to acquire the user’s password and ID.

Intensively screen your new staff

When hiring new staff, employers shouldn’t take this stage for granted. Properly scrutinize your new staff’s past professional records, educational records, and social records for red flags.

Compulsory vacations

Enforce compulsory vacations for your staff. That way, you will have the chance to uncover professional misconduct because while the staff is gone, someone else has temporarily taken up his/her place. Also, ensure you involve multiple staff to take over various sections of your organization to ensure a smooth transition of roles in case an employee decides to leave the company. Compulsory vacations guarantee several people will have the capacity to perform the role, and it helps to avoid overly relying on one person.