INSIDER THREAT

Why Your Peers Are Talking About Insider Threat and You Should Too

4 MIN READ

When it comes to the exposure of risk from insider threats, the truth is the reality has changed dramatically in recent years.

Three to five years ago, there was no way for a security team to tell if employees took data. Now there is a whole generation of folks who think it is ok to take data on a USB from one job to another and just don’t think twice about it.
Seven years ago, Slack was born and changed the way employees communicate forever.
Ten years ago cloud collaborations platforms were in their infancy — can you imagine?

We are in a transformational period, and we can’t afford to wait five more years to understand how to balance the appropriate amount of risk with being a modern company. At companies where products and customers drive everything, security is often forced to accept more risk. But, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Top security teams are reducing risk by implementing modern insider threat programs that don’t get in the way of employees getting their job done. Here is how your peers are accomplishing this:

1. Understand your data risk and threats

Beginning with an understanding of a business’s most significant data risk and most pervasive threats is step one for any security team looking to reduce their data risk. For example, if you detect that valuable data is being uploaded to OneDrive when your corporate cloud collaboration platform is Google Drive, you may have an insider threat situation on your hands. Implementing a tool like Code42 Incydr™ can provide you ability to detect, investigate and respond to common insider threats scenarios such as this.

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2. Right-sized response

It is important to recognize that not every risk caused by an insider ought to be met with litigation. Sure, in high risk circumstances response to insider threats may include legal hold, a cease-and-desist letter and formal litigation, but this is not every case. Rather, insider threat response can also take the form of security awareness training to educate employees on their role in protecting data. Oftentimes, insider threat response requires a human response; and in any situation, Code42 Incydr provides the data risk intelligence to help inform the right course of action.

3. Don’t wait for a crisis to take action

Security teams are notoriously reactive. The mentality of “never let a crisis go to waste” is an all too common tactic for security teams trying to win budget after an incident occurs. Some security teams are helping to change this cliche by leveraging free data risk assessments in order to gain visibility into insider threats so that an incident isn’t the eye-opener.

Any human who has been a part of creating, collaborating and sharing information in the past 10 years can tell you that the reality around data security has changed dramatically. Any security professional who has been in the field for five years can validate that the array of vulnerabilities and threats has grown. Yet, somehow the fundamental approach to how security teams mitigate the changing reality has remained static. It’s time to consider a new approach, it works, just ask your peers. Don’t let your organization lagger when it comes to implementing a modern insider threat program, this Cybrary course can help you get started.