How to Spot Insider Threats (And Stop Them Before It's Too Late)

Businesses today need to be vigilant to cybersecurity threats coming from all quarters. That means not only monitoring risks from outside your organization, but also tackling those that originate within your own workforce.

Company insiders are responsible for more than one in five security incidents (22%), according to the Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report. Research has also shown that the frequency of incidents involving insider threats increased by 47% between 2018 and 2020.

Make sure you understand this risk and have a plan in place to stop it inflicting serious damage on your business, your customers, or both.

Understanding insider threats

It's crucial to operate from a position of awareness and understanding if your efforts to tackle insider threats are to deliver results.

These risks to your business often have their roots in three areas:

• Malicious intent: Disgruntled or unscrupulous employees may launch targeted attacks against the company with the aim of stealing data or accessing systems for their own gain
• Carelessness: Small errors or oversights - such as a member of staff clicking on a link that exposes your network to malware, or misplacing a piece of physical hardware containing sensitive information - can have severe consequences from a security perspective
• Compromised users: Your business could come under threat if valid users' account details are compromised or acquired by a third party who’s then able to access your systems

Make sure you're tracking user activity and behavior within your organization to gain an idea of what types of insider threat pose the biggest danger to you.