Written by Shanna Hall from Eftsure When it comes to security threats and fraud risks, we often talk a lot about hackers and people outside of businesses breaking into companies’ networks to steal information and data – but a very, very real threat lies within every single organisation. Threats from employees and other trusted insiders are on the upswing, and businesses need to safeguard against them.Let’s look at the different types of insider threats and the warning signs you should be considering. An insider threat is exactly what it sounds like – a security risk inside your organisation. It could be a disgruntled or compromised current or former employee or a business partner or associate who misuses legitimate access to your network. However, not all insider threat incidents are deliberate – in fact, the most common insider threats come from employees who unintentionally provide access to cybercriminals. The insider threat is increasing, with74% of businessesreporting more frequent insider threat cases in 2023 than in previous years, and48% of businessesbelieving insider threats are more difficult to detect and prevent than external cyber attacks. While there are several subsets of insider threats, they fall into two categories – malicious and unintentional. Otherwise known as a malicious insider threat, this type of insider threat involves deliberate efforts to exploit an employee’s proximity to organisational processes and information. In these cases, an employee, contractor or third-party business uses legitimate credentials to access – or facilitate access to – sensitive and confidential information with malicious intent, which is what we saw inthe case of the National Maritime Museum. The motivation for a malicious insider attack can vary. For example, it could be a disgruntled employee who wants to sabotage the business to get even for a perceived lack of recognition or reward, or a former employee who feels unjustly treated. Malicious insiders are incredibly dangerous as they have an advantage over external attackers, given their knowledge of a company’s security policies and procedures – and, as a result, its areas of weakness. One subset of malicious insider threats involves criminal coercion. For example, an employee or other person with access may be paid, bribed or blackmailed to provide access to hackers, competitors or nation-state actors to cause business disruption, leak customer information, and steal intellectual property and other confidential information. This can also happen through credential theft, wherein cybercriminals steal the username and password of a targeted individual. They can accomplish this by using tactics likephishingor malware, tactics thatartificial intelligence (AI)is helping them turbo-charge. Research fromPonemon and Proofpointindicates that credential theft is on the rise, with incidents doubling since 2020 and costing an average of $670,600 per incident. Don't miss our upcoming webinar about how to safeguard your company against increasingly complex cyber fraud tactics. Register now Human error accounts for 90% of cyber attacks, and unintentional insider threats are the primary risk for businesses when thinking about insider threats. Unintentional insider threats aren’t deliberate or malicious, but they account for the vast majority (87%) of insider attacks. Typically they resultfrom negligent or accidental behaviour. Negligent insiders don’t necessarily have malicious intent – however, through carelessness or maybe even a flagrant disregard for security procedures or protocols, they create opportunities for unauthorised access. Negligent insiders may misplace or lose a company laptop or storage device, ignore software updates and patches, or not follow multi-factor authentication requirements. To illustrate, research shows that around50% of peoplegive family and friends access to work-issued devices. An accidental unintentional insider threat comes from an insider making a genuine mistake. For example, clicking on a malicious link, inadvertently infecting the business’s systems, or sending confidential or sensitive information to an incorrect email address. Insider threats can be difficult to detect, given that access to sensitive information and systems is genuine – however, there are some things to be on the lookout for. Cyber security is a company-wide responsibility, and people and culture (that is, HR) departments have a critical role to play. From ensuring everyone within the organisation is conscious of and is prioritising cyber security to minimise unintentional cyber threats, to the early identification of people who may pose a malicious insider threat, people and culture can play a key role in helping reduce the insider threats a business faces. --- Don't wait for a costly cyberattack. Secure your supply chain today! Register for the FREE Eftsure Supply Chain Security Webinar.Insider threat statistics
Intentional insider threats
Compromised insider
Unintentional insider threats
Examples of negligent insider activity
Examples of accidental unintentional insider threats
How do you spot malicious insider threats?
Key signs that might point to a malicious insider
In summary
FAQs
What are the 5 types of insider threats? ›
It includes corruption, espionage, degradation of resources, sabotage, terrorism, and unauthorized information disclosure. It can also be a starting point for cyber criminals to launch malware or ransomware attacks. Insider threats are increasingly costly for organizations.
Which is the sign of an insider threat? ›Common types of insider threat indicators include unusual behavior, access abuse, excessive data downloads, and unauthorized access attempts. Monitoring these indicators can help organizations identify potential insider threats and take necessary steps to mitigate risks and protect sensitive information.
What are the technical indicators of an insider threat? ›Technical indicators
Security teams can look for signals, including unusual data access patterns, abnormal network traffic, unusual system logon times, or large volumes of sensitive data in unexpected locations.
Threat indicators are observed behaviors, activities and/or items construed as terrorist planning efforts or impending attack: Gathering of target intelligence—Process of intelligence gathering precedes all terrorist operations.
What are the four major categories of threats? ›Threats can be classified into four different categories; direct, indirect, veiled, conditional. A direct threat identifies a specific target and is delivered in a straightforward, clear, and explicit manner.
What is the most common form of insider threat? ›The insider threat that carries the most risk is when employees misuse their access privileges for personal gain. This can include unauthorized access attempts, data theft, or the misuse of sensitive information. Monitoring for such indicators can help organizations mitigate the risks associated with insider threats.
What are the red flags of insider threat? ›Some red flags that someone has become a malicious insider threat include sudden changes in behavior or attitude towards colleagues or work responsibilities, accessing sensitive data or files without a legitimate reason, and attempts to bypass security measures or exploit vulnerabilities in the system.
How many insider threat indicators are there? ›There are six common insider threat indicators, explained in detail below. While each may be benign on its own, a combination of them can increase the likelihood that an insider threat is occurring.
How to identify threats? ›Threat identification is the process of determining potential risks to a system by using checklists, traceability links, and various strategies such as injury, entry point, threat, and vulnerability arguments.
What is a reportable insider threat? ›An insider threat uses authorized access, wittingly or unwittingly, to harm national security through unauthorized disclosure, data modification, espionage, terrorism, or kinetic actions resulting in loss or degradation of resources or capabilities.
Which of the following best describes an insider threat? ›
An insider threat is anyone with authorized access who uses that access to wittingly or unwittingly cause harm to an organization and its resources including information, personnel, and facilities.
What are the 3 major motivations for insider threats? ›Insiders have a wide variety of motivations, ranging from greed, a political cause, or fear – or they may simply be naive.
What is threat warning? ›Threat Warning, in the context of aircraft and military defense systems, is a defense community term referring to a core component of modern Threat Detection and Response (TDR) systems, which use information from electronic threat detection processes and other data to verify the real world existence of a threat – ...
What are the 8 warning behaviors in threat assessment? ›They require an operational response. A typology of eight warning behaviors for assessing the threat of intended violence is proposed: pathway, fixation, identification, novel aggression, energy burst, leakage, directly communicated threat, and last resort warning behaviors.
What are examples of threat displays? ›A threat display is anything that an animal does to scare away other animals. A dog will bare its teeth and growl. A cat will hiss. A snake will coil up, raise its head, and move back and forth to point itself at any big animal that approaches it.
What are insider threats? ›Insider threats are cybersecurity threats that originate with authorized users, such as employees, contractors and business partners, who intentionally or accidentally misuse their legitimate access, or have their accounts hijacked by cybercriminals.
What are the main categories of insider crime? ›Insider threats fall into two categories: malicious or negligent. Malicious insiders act deliberately, and they often use the same techniques as criminal hackers, such as planting malware or exploiting an unprotected database. By contrast, negligent insiders act carelessly but have no intent to harm the organisation.