Employees, vendors, contractors, and suppliers who have access to your organization’s internal systems are considered Insiders and any potential harm caused by them are referred to as Insider Threats. Being insiders, these users have access to the sensitive data and proprietary information including IP, trade secrets, customer and employee data, and more.
No organization is fully immune to insider threats. According to a report published by Ernst & Young and IBM, there’s a 74% perceived risk of cyber breach and insider misuse in the financial services industry; followed by 64% in consumer, retail and wholesale; 55% in tech and entertainment, and 56% in power and utilities.One of the main reasons why insider threat is so prevalent is because it’s hard to detect.
Dealing with insider threats requires a different strategy from other cybersecurity challenges because their inherent nature is different. Insiders have a significant advantage over external attackers. In addition to already having access to privileged systems, they are not only aware of their organization’s policies, procedures, and technology; they are also aware of the vulnerabilities.