Insider threats have, lately, become a significant threat to organizations and it is not advisable to ignore them. Insider threat can be defined as a security risk originating from within an organization. It, generally, is caused by an employee (current or former) or a business partner with access to privileged information within an organizational network and misusing it.
According to a study by Proofpoint, since 2020, the average cost of insider threats has been rising and shows no signs of slowing down. They have increased from $11.45 million in 2020 to $15.38 million in 2022 - a 34% rise. Insider-led security breaches have witnessed a 44% surge in 2022.
Types of Insider Threats
- Malicious insiders - almost every one in four insider threats result from a malicious insider. Also known as a turncloak, malicious insiders intentionally exploit legitimate credentials for malicious purposes.
- Careless insiders - 56% of cyber security breaches are the result of careless insiders. They are innocent employees who inadvertently expose the organization’s systems or networks to outside threats. This may be caused by leaving a device exposed or falling prey to phishing scams.
- Moles - this is typically an outsider who somehow gains access to insider information. This outsider usually poses as an employee or a business associate.
Insider Threat Indicators
Abnormal activities on the network can indicate malicious insider threats. Some trackable anomalous indicators include:
Activity at unusual times.
- Increase in phishing attacks or business email compromises.
- Accessing unusual resources or downloading huge amounts of data.
- Accessing sensitive information or sending multiple requests for accessing data not relevant to the job role.
- Using unauthorized storage devices.
- Transferring substantial amounts of data via the network.
Best Practices to Stay Safe
A comprehensive insider threat mitigation program integrates information-centric principles, physical security, and personnel awareness of cyber security among personnel. Creating a strong defense necessitates understanding the insider’s behavior within an organization, monitoring it within suitable legal boundaries, and intervening to manage that behavior. Below are the best practices that every organization should follow to the tee when anomalous behavior is detected.
Identifying activity patterns
This involves keeping an eye out for unusual communication patterns, especially the ones involving huge volumes of traffic. The data loss prevention should be informed immediately to look for suspicious activity.
Preventing an insider from becoming a threat
Before identifying anomalous behavior, security teams need to identify gaps in the organization’s security posture. It needs to be ensured that the environment is secure to prevent the outflow of sensitive data because of different kinds of insider threats. Security measures such as file access management, behavioral analytics, and email security should be implemented. Moreover, creating personnel awareness of cyber security to prevent them from clicking on suspicious emails should be ensured.
Conducting organization-wide risk assessment
Knowing the vulnerabilities and potential threats affecting critical assets is crucial. This should also include the risks posed by insider threats. Subsequently, prioritize the risks and fortify the IT security infrastructure according to the priority. Conducting vulnerability management and sharing threat intelligence regularly should protect an organization from such threats.
Implementing policies and controls
Security software solutions should contain their own management policies and configuration documents. These include setting up an incident response plan, general data protection regulations, password management policy, user monitoring policy, and third-party access policy.
Appropriately configuring software
Software such as active directory, endpoint detection and response system, intrusion detection and prevention system, encryption software, web and spam filters, and data loss prevention software should be properly deployed and configured.
Enhancing network perimeter security
This involves the following:
- Configure the firewall appropriately.
- Ensure no critical systems or ports are left exposed to the internet.
- Implement network segmentation.
- Establishing normal network device behavior.
Enforcing insider threat awareness
Every organization should train its employees and contractors in awareness of cyber security before providing them access to systems. Apart from training, they should be tested periodically against social engineering attacks and exposed sensitive data.
The Bottom Line
Insider threats can be more difficult to detect than outsider attacks and can sometimes be ignored by traditional security solutions. However, following the best practices stated above can prevent security breaches owing to insider threats. To protect all assets, an organization should diversify its insider threat detection plan instead of focusing on a single solution.
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