Which of the following is considered a potential insider threat vulnerability?

An insider threat can happen when someone close to an organization with authorized access misuses that access to negatively impact the organization’s critical information or systems. This person does not necessarily need to be an employee – third party vendors, contractors, and partners could pose a threat as well. Insider threats can be unintentional or malicious, depending on the threat’s intent. Unintentional insider threats can be from a negligent employee falling victim to a phishing attack. A malicious threat could be from intentional data theft, corporate espionage, or data destruction.

Your biggest asset is also your biggest risk. The root cause of insider threats? People. Yet most security tools only analyze computer, network, or system data.

Threats can come from any level and from anyone with access to proprietary data 25% of all security incidents involve insiders.[1]

Recent insider threat statistics reveal that 69% say their organizations have experienced an attempted or successful threat or corruption of data in the last 12 months.

Insider Threat Behavior Patterns

Most sophisticated intrusion detection systems and monitoring applications take a benchmark of typical activity from the network and use behavior patterns (e.g., access requests) to determine if there is a potential attack. These systems might use artificial intelligence to analyze network traffic and alert administrators.

A few behavior patterns common with insider threats include:

Insider Threat Statistics

One-third of all organizations have faced an insider threat incident.[2] The rest probably just don’t know it yet.

50%

of incidents where private or sensitive information was unintentionally exposed[3]

40%

of incidents where employee records were compromised or stolen[3]

33%

of incidents where customer records were compromised or stolen[3]

32%

of incidents where confidential records (trade secrets or intellectual property) were compromised or stolen[3]

Decrease your risk immediately with advanced insider threat detection and prevention.

Types of Insider Threats

What makes insider threats unique is that it’s not always money driven for the attacker. In some cases, the attacker is a disgruntled employee who wants to harm the corporation and that’s their entire motivation. There are four types of insider threats. They aren’t always malicious, but they can still have a devastating impact of revenue and brand reputation.

How to Stop Insider Threats

To stop insider threats–both malicious and inadvertent–you must continuously monitor all user activity and take action when incidents arise.

The potential risks of insider threats are numerous, including installing malware, financial fraud, data corruption, or theft of valuable information. To counteract all these possible scenarios, organizations should implement an insider threat solution with 6 key capabilities:

Are you ready to decrease your risk with advanced insider threat detection and prevention? Let us walk you through our Proofpoint Insider Threat Management and answer any questions you have about Insider Threats.

Insider Threats FAQs

How many potential insider threat indicators are there?

Any user with internal access to your data could be an insider threat. Vendors, contractors, and employees are all potential insider threats. Suspicious events from specific insider threat indicators include:

- Recruitment: Employees and contractors can be convinced by outside attackers to send sensitive data to a third party.

- Voluntary: Disgruntled and dissatisfied employees can voluntarily send or sell data to a third party without any coercion.

- Unknowing: Due to phishing or social engineering, an individual may disclose sensitive information to a third party.

What advantages do insider threats have over others?

Because insiders have at least basic access to data, they have an advantage over an external threat that must bypass numerous firewalls and intrusion detection monitoring. The level of authorized access depends on the user’s permissions, so a high-privilege user has access to more sensitive information without the need to bypass security rules.

What is not considered a potential insider threat?

External threats are definitely a concern for corporations, but insider threats require a unique strategy that focuses on users with access, rather than users bypassing authorization. Attacks that originate from outsiders with no relationship or basic access to data are not considered insider threats. Note that insiders can help external threats gain access to data either purposely or unintentionally.

[1] Verizon. “Data Breach Investigations Report”
[2] SANS. “Insider Threats and the Need for Fast and Directed Response”
[3] CSO Magazine. “U.S. State of Cybercrime Report”

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