Cybersecurity is a software or expert team that protects online websites and users from cybercriminals. Crime doesn’t just limit to physical but also digital in the modern world of advanced technology. Large corporations buy high security and protected software to protect their information. They cannot afford a leak of information because their projects and ideas are stored in it that brings success to the company. Furthermore, there are so many bank accounts and transactions involved that need extra security.
Cybersecurity ensures that the software is clean from malware and no bug could take away information from the software. But somehow they do get leaked or malware takes over despite dozens of protocols taken by the company. This is the work of an insider threat in the corporation.
Insider threats are employees or other staff members that leak important information about the company to an outsider. They are usually hired by an organization in competition with the very company to win over an investment or a deal.
Business owners tend to lead down their guard around their employees that could be an insider threat to the company. Furthermore, there is no way in realizing who is an insider threat and who isn’t since they work very carefully. It is all up to the judgment of the experts and sometimes employees working with the insider threat can identify them as well.
There can be many causes of an insider threat, but mostly it is the business partners or old employees that might hold a grudge against the organization. There are parties involved too, who might want the company’s downfall as well. All we know is that it is a well-planned and collaborative action.
The most common cause of insider threat is when the organization does not invest money in buying highly secured software, the insider might easily find loopholes within a system to hack in and take all the information.
Insider threats can be also a group of hackers that use phishing emails to hack into the software. Employees are sometimes unaware and open the mail without scanning for a threat. Insider threats are always based on the close observation of the person involved.
Employee desktops have all the information of the project they are working on, sometimes the organizations trust those confidential documents on an employee who can easily leak the information. There are USB sticks with malware in them that can easily take over a desktop to access data.
There are many negligent employees who leave their devices open or lose USB easily, so the insider threat takes the opportunity to steal the information quickly. Negligent employees can problematic and it is better not to work on a confidential project with them.
There are contractors that can easily leak the project information to other organizations, this is why companies put extra effort in making contracts strict and with a penalty.
Cybersecurity can do little help in this case, because insider security is a threat to it as well. Many organizations have a team of experts in cybersecurity that track the history of movements of the employee closely. They make sure the desktop of every employee is connected with their server so that they can easily identify the insider threat.
Many organizations hold meetings and decide to do a detailed investigation on the team involved to see their activity. The team takes out all records and relationships between employees to find the suspect. Sometimes it is a success, but sometimes the insider threat runs away before being identified.
They hold annual or monthly sessions to educate the employees about phishing attacks and how they can report those acts quickly to avoid any loss. Breaching of contract for leaking the information is made extreme to make sure that the employees do not betray the organization.
Awareness is the best way of ensuring that the insider threat is not successful in breach of confidentiality and also analyzing the browsing of employees through a system network is the best way to prevent it.
Employees also need to take the responsibility of reporting whether certain information that should not be accessible can be opened by them so that the organization can work on it.
The bigger the organization in the business market, the more at risk it is for insider threat or phishing, this is why organizations put extra funds on cybersecurity and dominate the world with confidence. Cybersecurity and awareness are the two most basic steps that can avoid information leaks from insider threats!
