Protect Your Business from Within: Defending Against Insider Threats

You may believe you have taken every precaution to safeguard your organization from cyberthreats. You have the most modern security solutions to guard against external attacks, but are you also protected from internal risks?

Employees, vendors, partners, and even you, whether consciously or unknowingly, may impose a threat to your organization. That is why it is critical to understand how to secure your business from within. In this blog, we’ll go over several internal risks, how to recognize red flags, and, most importantly, how to prevent them.

Common Insider Threats

Insider threats are classified into several categories, each with its unique set of risks.

Below are some of the common threats:

Data theft: An employee or a member of the company downloads or discloses confidential data for personal or harmful reasons. Data theft includes both the physical theft of firm equipment storing sensitive information and the digital copying of them.

Example: An employee of a major healthcare service provider obtains and sells secured patient data on the dark web.

Sabotage: A disgruntled employee, an activist, or someone working for a competitor intentionally damages, disrupts, or destroys your organization by destroying essential files, infecting an organization’s technology, or altering passwords to lock a company out of critical systems.

Example: A unhappy coffee shop employee purposely tampers with the machine, resulting in a malfunction and loss of sales.

Unauthorized access: This is essentially a security breach in which bad actors, such as hackers or disgruntled employees, get access to business-critical information. Individuals might also accidentally obtain critical info.

Example: A hostile employee uses their login credentials to get access to sensitive information, which they subsequently disclose to competitors.

Negligence & error: Both ignorance and mistakes can result in insider threats, which constitute a security risk. While training can help to decrease errors, dealing with carelessness requires tougher enforcement.

Example: An employee may click on a dangerous link to download malware, or they may misplace a laptop with critical information. In both circumstances, the company’s data is compromised.

Credential sharing: Consider credential sharing to be the equivalent of giving a buddy the keys to your house. You can’t tell what they’ll do with it. They may just take some sugar or utilize your property to have a party. Similarly, disclosing your password with coworkers or acquaintances opens up a slew of possibilities, including a higher chance of exposing your company to a cyberattack.

Example: An employee uses a friend’s laptop to view their work email. They neglect to sign off, and the personal laptop is hacked. The hacker has now gained access to the company’s confidential information.

Spot the Red Flags

It is critical to recognize insider threats early on. Keep a look out for these telltale indicators:

Unusual access patterns: An employee unexpectedly has access to private company data unrelated to their job.

Excessive data transfers: An employee suddenly begins downloading client data and copies it to a memory stick.

Authorization requests: Someone regularly seeks access to business-critical information despite the fact that their job description does not necessitate it.

Use of unapproved devices: Accessing private information using personal computers or devices.

Disabling security tools: Someone in your organization turns off their antivirus or firewall.

Behavioral changes: An employee shows unusual conduct, such as abruptly missing deadlines or displaying indications of excessive stress.

Enhance Your Defenses

Here are our five steps to creating a robust cybersecurity strategy that will keep your organization safe:

1. Use a strong password policy and multi-factor authentication wherever possible.
2. Limit employee access to relevant data and systems. Regularly check and adjust access privileges.
3. Train your staff on insider threats and the best security practices.
4. Regularly back up vital data to prevent data loss.
5. Create a detailed incident response strategy to address insider threats.

Don’t Fight Internal Threats Alone

Protecting your organization against insider threats may be intimidating, especially if you have to do it alone. That is why you need an experienced partner like Atom Creek. As an IT service provider, we can assist you in implementing complete security measures.

Let us help you protect your company from the inside out. Contact sales@atomcreek.com and we’ll teach you how to monitor for possible dangers and respond efficiently if one happens.