Have you already deployed firewalls and anti-malware tools to protect your company’s data? That is an excellent first step, commendable, even. But is that enough? One cannot say for sure.
While external cybersecurity threats are important to tackle, overlooking internal risks is not something organizations can afford. Because, sometimes, a mistake as small as granting someone unnecessary access can end with millions down the drain.
Before all that, however, it is awareness that serves as the most critical line of defense. So today, in the interest of that awareness, we are going to discuss why insider threats deserve just as much attention as external ones and how businesses can prevent them.
High Risk of Data Breaches
Since insider threats come from individuals who already have authorized access to sensitive information, data breach risks increase manifold. Rather than having to bypass firewalls and authenticate themselves, insiders portray legitimate user behavior, which fails to raise any red flags.
Whether employees or third-party vendors, anyone with direct access to databases can pose a threat to an organization’s security.
To make matters worse, not all insider threats are malicious because sometimes, they occur only from negligence. It can be a user falling for a phishing scam or poor security of devices. Regardless of the reasons, organizations take the brunt of it.
Financial Consequences
We all know that insider threats can quickly translate to immediate financial loss. However, what is mostly turned a blind eye to are the long-term consequences. Whether a result of negligence or intentional misuse, companies can suffer from data breaches.
And, in all honesty, this simple name comes with a really hefty price tag. Not only that, but when sensitive information is leaked, recovery efforts like system audits, public relations responses, etc., can further create a huge dent in the financial resources of an organization.
Moving forward, what if the incident is motivated by personal gains? This is obviously not unheard of since 89% of misuse cases are for financial benefits. Overall, your organization will not only suffer financially but also lose its clients’ confidence.
Reputational Damage
Now that we are on the topic of client confidence, let’s talk about how severely a company’s reputation is damaged by insider threats. So, when a breach comes from within, customers and stakeholders take it as an organization’s inability to control its own environment. Therefore, this trust, once broken, takes too long to rebuild.
Plus, as the news spreads, the public not only sees the data that is lost but also questions how it was allowed to happen in the first place. Then come the clients who can be quick to switch teams and distance themselves from an “ill-reputed” company.
So, if you think your data is all that is getting compromised, stop and think again, because it is much worse. Your credibility is at stake.
Intellectual Property Theft
All users in an organization and affiliated parties mostly have authorized access to proprietary information. And unfortunately, that is what is mostly stolen, so much so that almost 12,000 intellectual property cases are filed annually.
Now, to put into perspective what might be stolen, it is not only your customer’s information but also your business strategies, product designs, source code, and more. All they need is to copy the data and sell it to someone else without detection. Mostly, by the time organizations catch on to intellectual property theft, significant damage has been done.
Operational Disruption
If you believe this is all, you have another thing coming. Why? Because insider threats take it a step further by also impacting the daily functioning of a business. Unintentional introduction of a threat by trusted individuals can compromise systems and even bring operations to an unexpected stop.
On the other hand, insiders with malicious intent may intentionally delete files or corrupt databases, which can, in turn, disable crucial services.
What is even worse is that most insiders have a deeper understanding of the internal workings of a system, and can cause the most damage when doing it out of revenge.
Implement Strict Access Controls
However, we do need to acknowledge that protection against security threats from within the organization is not easy. But everyone must start from somewhere. For that matter, the first step you must take is implementing strict access controls in your organization.
To execute this, you should follow the principle of least privilege. It dictates that no user should have more or less access than required. Therefore, only the permissions they need to perform their specific roles should be granted.
By doing so, the chances of data misuse are reduced substantially. For example, since those from marketing can no longer see payroll data, they cannot exploit their privileges. Likewise, third-party vendors have no business accessing client data, which will lessen unauthorized access.
To add more to your access controls, you can also implement multi-factor authentication and tiered access levels.
Conduct Regular Risk Assessments
Through regular risk assessment, organizations can protect themselves against insider threats by identifying vulnerabilities and responding to them promptly. But is that all risk assessment is?
No, it further helps monitor any evolving risks and evaluate the performance of existing security systems. Even with the awareness of its importance, fewer than 8% organizations invest in monthly risk assessment.
These gaps in the internal defense are then used by insiders to exploit an organization’s data and sources. So what should organizations do? For starters, they must recognize that insider threats are not static, which means they evolve. Therefore, to stay ahead of any changes in personnel or business processes, they must invest in audits.
Not only that, but regular risk assessments also help companies recognize any shifts in behavior and access privileges. With an earlier detection of these red flags through routine audits, companies can be better prepared for any attacks.
However, it is not a one-time thing. You cannot perform one risk assessment and then forget it completely. You must acknowledge that it is a continuous process for your organization’s well-being.
Strengthen Endpoint Security
Apart from insiders, what is something affiliated with them that can be a threat? Their poorly secured devices.
Since these laptops/computers can enable data theft, endpoint security is essential for organizations. Its security measures include strong authentication methods, device encryption, application whitelisting, and updated operating systems. By doing so, you can monitor how data is accessed and stored in company or personal laptops.
You can further detect abnormal behavior, like mass downloads, with these tools’ real-time visibility. Not only that, an alert is also triggered to the security teams if any user is behaving suspiciously.
Monitor Users’ Phone Activity
Now, you might believe that you have everything sorted in your organization with the above-mentioned measures. However, there is a major blind spot that you may be overlooking, i.e., mobile phones.
Do you really believe the sensitive business data is only accessible through computers? No. Today, employees are regularly seen accessing high-profile files on their own or company-owned phones due to the ease of access. But with no measures put in place for phone monitoring, it is only natural for you to have no visibility into what is happening on these devices.
The lack of insight, therefore, further plays a part in accelerating the insider threats. So what should your approach be? Simple, a phone tracking app. Even though it might seem too tedious to implement, a reliable tool like Xnspy can come in handy.
You need to install the app on your employees’ company-provided phones only once, and then it runs in the background to collect all their phone activity. You can see these activity logs in real-time using the Xnspy web dashboard and also toggle features as required.
The features offered by Xnspy include, but are not limited to, screen recording, SIM activity, browsing history, email monitoring, keylogging, keyword alerts, chat monitoring, remote wipe, and phone lock.
Since Xnspy takes a screenshot of the company phone’s active screen every 5-10 seconds, a user’s complete phone activity is captured. But that is not all. It further records SIM activity like texts and call logs, including call recordings.
Browsing history, on the other hand, shows the kind of websites they have accessed, while email monitoring helps you keep an eye on any suspicious data sharing with all received and sent email logs.
Moreover, the keylogger ensures that all the keystrokes on the company-provided phone are recorded and categorized by apps for perusal.
But if you cannot constantly monitor each employee’s phone, you can set immediate keyword alerts that are triggered when a flagged word is detected by the system.
Additionally, if throughout the monitoring you notice any suspicious apps in the installed app feature, you can put to use the remote controls. You can either block the app, lock the phone, or wipe the device’s data remotely. With these features, you can ensure that not only are all insider threats recognized early on, but they are also dealt with immediately before they spiral.
Also, quick but important heads-up. You are allowed to monitor company-provided phones, as long as your employees are informed and you are not overstepping boundaries. Most countries require clear disclosure and sometimes written consent, especially if you are collecting data.
The key is transparency. Make sure your monitoring policy is part of your onboarding or company guidelines, so you are fully covered and keeping things compliant.
Conclusion
Detecting and preventing insider threats is not an option but rather a necessity. You cannot choose to fight external risks head-on and ignore internal attacks entirely.
With the discussion behind us, it is evident that insider threats can be as devastating as external ones. Therefore, before attacks accelerate, it is important for you to employ solutions like access control, phone tracking apps, etc.
Now, you are hopefully well-versed in how to counter security risks and select one according to your specific needs. However, above all, it is important to keep all your employees in the loop.
After all, security, at the end of the day, is built on trust.
