Insider Threats: How to Detect and Mitigate Risks from Within

‍Internal cyber threats are deemed to be severe since most insider threats are identified at a very advanced stage or are completely concealed, and the insider possesses full access to the organization’s information that is leaked or disclosed. Insider threats are a potential problem for organizations of all sizes and belonging to different industries because they may lead to important consequences, including financial losses and reputational losses. Moreover, they could lead to legal fines.

Furthermore, insider attacks, whether intentional or accidental, are generally not addressed under cyber insurance since they fall under a lapse in company security legislation and are not cyber attacks by outsiders. Companies must acquire this knowledge to identify insider threats and the measures that must be taken to reduce them and eliminate them in the organization.

This post will look at how insider threats can be identified, dealt with, flagged, and avoided to reduce the overall threat of internal threats with effectively managed third party risk.

What is an Insider Threat? 

These are the types of security risks that originate from insiders of an organization. Such individuals may work for the organization or be business partners, vendors, consultants, or any other parties that may harm the organization due to a lapse in judgment or with malicious intent. Hence, it is required to control insider threats in order to avoid hazards and attacks. A recent estimation revealed that about 31% of all cyber incidents reported in the last year occurred as a result of an insider attack, meaning that a third of all cyber incidents originated from an insider, a contractor, or an employee. Also, the average cost of an insider threat stands at a whopping $8. 76 million globally.

How to Identify an Insider Threat

The first source of Insider threat indicators involves taking measures to notice particular behavior that is abnormal or could be an indication of danger. For example:

• There are instances where an employee connects to these systems or data at odd hours or on days that are not normally part of his or her working schedule.
• Unauthorized attempts at gaining higher privileges and information or systematically trying to subvert the required authorization procedures.
• Multiple invalid login attempts inclusive of unauthorized login attempts or tests for website’s vulnerabilities.
• Disturbances in a network’s chronology include large amounts of traffic, access to forbidden areas, or contacting malicious IPs.
• Any changes in demeanor, behavior, or work output could be a result of some personal or professional matter.
• The organization’s information systems and data can be accessed using devices that the organization does not approve.
• Such transgressions as sharing passwords, using unauthorized applications, or attempting to remove the existing security features regularly.
• Any form of dissatisfaction, resentment, and other indicators that may make him engage in vengeful activities at the workplace.
• Any changes in the Audit logs or missing records can be an attempt by the user to mask improper activities.

What needs to be understood is that these indicators are to be viewed as part of an organization’s environment and, thus, not always a sign of a potential threat.

Best Practices for Insider Threat Prevention

The following are the key practices that businesses can undertake to prevent the growing insider threats.

• Set a Security Policy

Develop a security policy for users and ensure it includes guidelines for identifying and preventing insider abuse. The policy and the use of the best TPRM software should also address lessons from lurking insiders and give guidelines on how to investigate misuse.

• Implement a Threat Detection Governance Program

Develop a long-term systematic threat identification strategy that can be embarked on with the assistance of your managers. Be certain to brief the executives on the extent of scanning for malicious codes; every privileged user is considered a threat.

• Secure Your Infrastructure

Follow strict access standards to limit physical and logical access to infrastructures and other important data. Organizations should apply the least privileged access and regulate employees’ permissions; stronger methods of identity checks include biometric authentication to minimize insider threats.

• Map Your Exposure

Your organization’s CISO must assess your internal teams and evaluate each employee’s potential to become a threat. You cannot expect your developers to apply fixes and protect against insider threats if the adversary is those developers.

• Use Threat Modeling

Use scale threat modeling to understand your threats and the particular threat vectors concerning malicious code or vulnerabilities. Determine who could potentially breach the system and how they could access your valuable items. Knowing the former is essential for successfully implementing the latter, as it resembles a defense strategy.

• Set Up Strong Authentication Measures

Implement MFA and good password management strategies to make it difficult for attackers to obtain passwords. Passwords should be elaborate and distinct. MFA assists in preventing people with some user IDs and passwords from gaining entry into a system even if they are infiltrated.

• Prevent Data Exfiltration

After you understand the importance of Cybersecurity, it is important to Implement the access controls and then control data access to prevent lateral movement within the organization or theft of its property.

• Eliminate Idle Accounts

Remove all the accounts that are no longer in use and monitor the users’ accounts and privileges at least weekly. Make it impossible for inactive users, like ex-employees, to get into the system or access data that they should not be allowed to view.

• Investigate Anomalous Behavior

To separate the miscreants, attempt to look for any irregularity in your organization’s LAN. But as a researcher, you have to ensure that you are conversant with the specific monitoring laws that exist.

Conclusion

Insiders can take advantage of new opportunities and risks stemming from improvements in technology, from better connectivity to the emergence of work-from-home opportunities. To tackle insider threats in the business world, companies are now shifting towards behavioral analytics and machine learning to spot any unusual behavior from a user, which will lead to the prevention of insider threats.

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