Cybersecurity Pros Warn Against Insider Threats

Insider threats are on the rise and many companies are not prepared to handle them, results of a recent comprehensive survey showed.

The Insider Threat Report, released yesterday (June 18), is based on the insights of over 500 cybersecurity professionals and explores the efforts being made to prevent, detect and remediate insider threats. Crowd Research Partners, a research firm that creates crowd-sourced thought leadership content, conducted the survey in conjunction with the Information Security Community on LinkedIn and leading security vendors.

According to the report, 62 percent of respondents said the number of instances surrounding insider threats have increased over the last 12 months. Despite this, the study still found less than 50 percent of organizations have the right controls in place to prevent insider attacks.

The report further discusses which user categories represent the largest threat, the most vulnerable applications and data, common launch points for attacks, budget trends and more, the company release said.

These types of threats are usually posed by privileged users – such as system administrators, database administrators and managers – who have access to sensitive company information.

Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents said these privileged users represent the biggest risk to organizations, closely followed by contractors and consultants (48 percent) and then regular employees (46 percent).

Whether insider threats are implemented deliberately or happen inadvertently through the actions of those with access to valuable data, an organization may put itself more at risk by not having the appropriate systems in place.

Insufficient data protection strategies or solutions, an increasing amount of data leaving the network perimeter via mobile devices and Web access, and a lack of employee awareness and training, are found to be just some of the reasons perpetuating insider threats, Enterprise Tech reported.

Considering 62 percent of cybersecurity professionals who took the survey said insider attacks are far more difficult to detect and prevent as compared to external attacks, the report’s results may cause businesses to think twice about leaving data vulnerable to insider forces.

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