What Is Insider Threat ?

 An insider threat is a security risk that originates from within the targeted organization. It typically involves a current or former employee or business associate who has access to sensitive information or privileged accounts within the network of an organization, and who misuses this access.

Traditional security measures tend to focus on external threats and are not always capable of identifying an internal threat emanating from inside the organization.

Types of insider threats include:

• Malicious insider—also known as a Turncloak, someone who maliciously and intentionally abuses legitimate credentials, typically to steal information for financial or personal incentives. For example, an individual who holds a grudge against a former employer, or an opportunistic employee who sells secret information to a competitor. Turncloaks have an advantage over other attackers because they are familiar with the security policies and procedures of an organization, as well as its vulnerabilities.

• Careless insider—an innocent pawn who unknowingly exposes the system to outside threats. This is the most common type of insider threat, resulting from mistakes, such as leaving a device exposed or falling victim to a scam. For example, an employee who intends no harm may click on an insecure link, infecting the system with malware.
• A mole—an imposter who is technically an outsider but has managed to gain insider access to a privileged network. This is someone from outside the organization who poses as an employee or partner.
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  Three types of risky behavior explained

  
  
  
  

  Malicious Insider Threat Indicators

  Anomalous activity at the network level could indicate an inside threat. Likewise, if an employee appears to be dissatisfied or holds a grudge, or if an employee starts to take on more tasks with excessive enthusiasm, this could be an indication of foul play. Trackable insider threat indicators include:

  • Activity at unusual times—signing in to the network at 3 am
  • The volume of traffic—transferring too much data via the network
  • The type of activity—accessing unusual resources

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  • How To Protect Against an Insider Attack: Best Practices

    You can take the following steps to help reduce the risk of insider threats:

    • Protect critical assets—these can be physical or logical, including systems, technology, facilities, and people. Intellectual property, including customer data for vendors, proprietary software, schematics, and internal manufacturing processes, are also critical assets. Form a comprehensive understanding of your critical assets. Ask questions such as: What critical assets do we possess? Can we prioritize our assets? And, What do we understand about the current state of each asset?
    • Enforce policies—clearly document organizational policies so you can enforce them and prevent misunderstandings. Everyone in the organization should be familiar with security procedures and should understand their rights in relation to intellectual property (IP) so they don’t share privileged content that they have created.
    • Increase visibility—deploy solutions to keep track of employee actions and correlate information from multiple data sources. For example, you can use deception technology to lure a malicious insider or imposter and gain visibility into their actions.
    • Promote culture changes—ensuring security is not only about know-how but also about attitudes and beliefs. To combat negligence and address the drivers of malicious behavior, you should educate your employees regarding security issues and work to improve employee satisfaction.

    

    
    Insider Threat Detection Solutions

    Insider threats can be harder to identify or prevent than outside attacks, and they are invisible to traditional security solutions like firewalls and intrusion detection systems, which focus on external threats. If an attacker exploits an authorized login, the security mechanisms in place may not identify the abnormal behavior. Moreover, malicious insiders can more easily avoid detection if they are familiar with the security measures of an organization.

    To protect all your assets, you should diversify your insider threat detection strategy, instead of relying on a single solution. An effective insider threat detection system combines several tools to not only monitor insider behavior, but also filter through the large number of alerts and eliminate false positives.