Every day, your business handles data that includes sensitive information for your business, your employees, and your clients. One of the primary challenges businesses face is the rising threat to data security. However, the threat to business data does not always come from external actors. Today’s greatest threat to business-critical data comes from human elements inside an organization.
Actors and motivations behind insider threats
There are two main types of actors behind all insider threat incidents — negligent insiders who unwittingly act as pawns to external threats and malicious insiders who become turncloaks for financial gain or revenge.
Negligent insiders – These are your regular employees who do their jobs but occasionally fall victim to a scam orchestrated by a cybercriminal. These actors do not have any bad intentions against your company. However, they are still dangerous since they are involved in a large proportion of all insider threat incidents.
Negligent insiders contribute to data security breaches by:
· Clicking on phishing links sent by untrusted sources
· Downloading attachments sent from suspicious sources
· Browsing malicious or illegitimate websites using work computers
· Using weak passwords for their devices
· Sending misdirected emails to unintended recipients
Malicious insiders – These are disgruntled employees who wreak havoc on your data security for financial gain or revenge. Disgruntled employees can manipulate the company’s tools, applications or systems, and while financial gain is the top reason behind most malicious insider actions, it isn’t always the case. Despite being rare in occurrence, these threats often have much more severe consequences since the actors have full access and credentials to compromise your security.
Best ways to prevent insider threats and protect data
There are a few strategies that you can implement throughout your organization to minimize the possibility of insider threats.
· Employee training: When properly trained, employees could be your first line of defense against various cyber threats. Create an organizational-level best practices policy that outlines clear instructions on personal device policies, passwords, remote working, etc.
· Dark Web Monitoring: It is important to have regular scans to ensure your data is not exposed on the Dark Web. Regular Dark Web Monitoring can save you from a data breach by notifying you of compromised credentials.
· Data backup: Backups are essential to protect your data in case of an unavoidable loss. With regular backups for your critical data, your business can get back up and running after a security breach involving an insider.
Reach out to us to protect your critical data
True Owl can protect you from insider threats with its Dark Web Monitoring and Employee Training. These benefits, plus many more, are included in True Owl’s comprehensive Vigilant 365 offering, learn more here.
