Insider Threat

Cybersecurity management often focuses on the outsider risk, but the threat of an intentional attack and unintentional harm caused by an insider is a real and severe cyber risk. Recent studies show that 50% of cyber-attacks were perpetrated or inadvertently started by insiders.

What is an Insider Threat?

An insider threat is a risk posed by someone close to the organization who has information on the organization’s security solutions, knows their way around the network, and knows where sensitive data is stored.

An insider doesn’t necessarily have to be an employee; insider threats can be caused by third-party vendors, contractors, partners, and former employees too. And these threats can include fraud, theft of confidential or valuable information or intellectual property, and sabotage of computer systems.

Common Insider Threats

There are two types of insider threats that are a significant risk to all organizations: malicious and inadvertent.

Malicious insiders are those who take advantage of their access to an organization to intentionally cause harm.

Malicious insiders usually have these common goals:

Sabotage
Intellectual property theft
Espionage
Fraud

Inadvertent or negligent insiders are those who place an organization at risk unintentionally through errors or a disregard for security policies. Common circumstances include:

Human error
Phishing
Malware
Poor judgment
Convenience
Unintentional aiding and abetting of cybercriminals

Malicious insiders usually have these common goals:

Sabotage
Intellectual property theft
Espionage
Fraud
Insider Threat

Inadvertent or negligent insiders are those who place an organization at risk unintentionally through errors or a disregard for security policies. Common circumstances include Insider Threat:

Human error
Phishing
Malware
Poor judgment
Convenience
Unintentional aiding and abetting of cybercriminals

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Stop Insider
Threats

Insider threats can have a more significant impact on your organization than you might think, and stopping them takes approaches that vary from other cyber defense.

At Digital Forge, we provide fraud prevention, cyber defense, and security intelligence services by helping you identify potential and realized insider threats, establish methods for prevention and detection, and prepare response methods in case they do occur.

Our managed security solutions will detect threats, investigate accidents, prevent incidents, protect user privacy, satisfy compliance, and integrate tools to ensure minimal risks for your organization in regards to insider threats and all other aspects of cybersecurity.

Insider threats can have a more significant impact on your organization than you might think, and stopping them takes approaches that vary from other cyber defense.