There is the popular adage that goes thus : "the enemy within kills faster than the enemy outside". When it comes to the security of your organization, this adage holds: Insider threats could cripple an organization and have been on the rise year to year.

If you don’t quickly mitigate this threat, your organization can suffer huge losses, sometimes more than anything an external threat can do. You need to identify these threats and take concrete steps to manage any possible situation.

What are Insider Threats?

Insider threats are people within your organization who could cause harm to you. Your employees, former employees, business associates, temp workers, partners, contractors, and anyone with access to your vital data and IT systems can be insider threats. These people with authorized access can cause harm to your organization.

This threat could be intentional or accidental. When it is accidental, it is usually due to negligence on the part of the employee to follow security policies and procedures who may not know that they are aiding an attack. This kind of attack consists of more than 60% of the insider threats in organizations.  However, insiders may, sometimes, be malicious and use their access to cause harm to the organization (perhaps out of anger at a perceived wrong or for financial gain).

Insider threats are dangerous, especially when nothing is done to mitigate their risks. Insider threat involving negligent employee or contractors can cost an organization an average of $307,111, according to a Ponemon Institute report.

Criminal and malicious insiders, on the other hand, cost an average of $756,760. The report also shows that it can take an average of almost 77 days to contain this kind of incident!

How to Manage Insider Threats in your Organization

While you can’t completely control what your employees (former or present) do, specific policies and procedures can be put in place to minimize these threats in your organization. Some of the steps that you can take to protect your organization from insider threats include;

·      Carry out risk assessments on your IT security infrastructure to know the areas prone to insider threats and improve on those areas.

·      Create and enforce policies and controls that would reduce the risk of insider threats. It would help if you had policies for password management, account management, incident reports, third-party access, and so on. These policies should be appropriately documented and signed with penalties for their violation.

·      Make use of the appropriate security software and appliances that would help protect your organization.

·      Ensure your employees are regularly trained on security risks and insider threat awareness.

·      Have a procedure for the use of personal devices and control remote access.

·      All IT infrastructures in the company should be adequately monitored with access limited to designated personnel.

·    Separate administrative and non-administrative duties with the least privilege enforced by requiring two users’ authorization to transfer data to removable devices.

Insider threats are real and can cause untold damage to an organization. You can mitigate the risk factor of your organization by implementing specific policies. Employ a security expert to help you if you don’t know how to get started.