The Cyber-Insider Threat—a Real and Ever-Present Danger

The Cyber-Insider Threat

OBJECTIVE OF THE TOOL: 
Of all the issues around cyber risk, perhaps the greatest challenge is mitigating the insider threat. The cyber-insider threat encompasses employees, contractors, vendors, and others who have legitimate access to the network, systems, and/or data of the organization to some degree. This Tool outlines the types of insider threats businesses face and questions boards should be asking to ensure management is adequately addressing insider threats

Verizon’s Data Breach Report identified five types of cyber-insider threats:

• Careless Workers: Employees or partners who non-maliciously misappropriate resources, break acceptable use policies, mishandle data, install unauthorized applications, or use unapproved workarounds

• Inside Agents: Insiders recruited, solicited, or bribed by external parties to exfiltrate data

• Disgruntled Employees: Insiders recruited, solicited, or bribed by external parties to exfiltrate data

• Malicious Insiders: Actors with access to corporate assets who use existing privileges to access information for personal gain

• Feckless Third Parties: Business partners who compromise security through negligence, misuse, or malicious access to, or use of, an asset