Do you know what internal cybersecurity threats are?
Internal cybersecurity threats are acts that have the goal of disrupting computer systems with harmful intentions. They are often caused by the careless actions of company employees, or by the actual malicious intent of an employee -past or present.
A disgruntled employee can cause a massive internal cyber threat that can involve theft of data or intellectual property. This can damage a company’s reputation.
So how can your company protect itself from employee cybersecurity threats?
Internal Threats Are Real
Internal cyber threats are very common, unfortunately. In fact, most cybersecurity threats originate within a company’s own organization.
Internal threats are very difficult to locate and detect. The insider is aware of the ins and outs of a company and has legitimate access to data and property. This makes it especially difficult to detect insider threats. Employees are often quite careful about being caught, and can in fact cover up their activity easily for a long period of time.
Internal actors can wreak pure havoc on your organization, leaving your sensitive data at risk.
Identifying Internal Actors
Often internal actors are current employees or previous employees that may have a reason to cause harm.
These insiders have authorized access to your organization’s data and resources. Things like your company facilities, equipment, systems, networks, and your sensitive data are all at risk.
There are many cyber insider threat examples to be aware of.
Example of insider threats:
- A former employee or department leader with insider knowledge about business plans. This may be due to an employee seeking revenge for their termination.
- Current employee with log on info to be able to access sensitive information, like employee’s personal info.
- Product developers or service providers. They have had enough access to understand some of the internal workings of your corporation.
- A contractor that your organization has given authorized access to data, networks and systems. This could include technicians or repair people.
- Sometimes the threat is from an inside agent that is working as a spy. The sabotage actors attempt to steal vital company information for the competition. (corporate sabotage)
Types Of Insider Threats in Cybersecurity
There are many different kinds of insider threat indicators to be aware of. While some threats are from a dishonest actor, sometimes unintentional insider threats occur.
A careless employee making an error can account for a huge percentage of internal threats. They may have mishandled some company data or were reckless with security or applications. They may be lazy or refuse to follow your company’s cybersecurity protocols.
Another insider threat can occur when an employee accidentally exposes your corporation to a risk by clicking on a malicious link or by opening a dangerous attachment in an email unknowingly.
How To Prevent Insider Threats
To lower the risks of internal security threats, your organizations can implement a proactive mitigation program to identify potential insider threat indicators.
The focus for your organization should be to first identify a potential threat, and then to assess how to manage that risk. You can implement insider threat training for employees – that is also crucial. This can help to prevent dangerous attacks before they occur.
Your organization can focus on several points for insider threat management and prevention:
- Identity: Your organization should utilize an IT professional to locate and identify potential risk areas.
- Access: A surefire way to prevent insider attacks is to secure the internal access controls. You should have strong encryption for data protection.
- Detection: Having a clear watch for detecting issues in your company environment can help to prevent potential insider attacks. This involves active monitoring of employees and those with access to deter network threats. Traffic analysis solutions can help.
- Forensics: Post attack and breach forensics analysis is a critical step in preventing internal/employee threats. Dealing with breaches quickly is important. Carefully examine the situation and environment, and analyze what occurred. This can include insider threat detection software.
Cybersecurity Plan
Having a proper cybersecuty plan for preventing insider threats in place is the best solution.
Whether potential attacks originate from accidental or malicious insider sources, you can prevent them from continuing with the help of your IT professionals.
At ETS, we can secure your organization by helping you to actively guard against cyber security threat actors. Our team will monitor for internal threats, and train your employees against potential errors and breaches.
You and your users will feel empowered, with a security team that provides innovative cybersecurity solutions that work.
Reach out to ETS today, and we will position your organization for success.
