Category: employees

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, organizations face a multitude of threats that can compromise their sensitive data and operations. While external threats from hackers and cyber criminals are well-recognized, there’s an often-underestimated risk that originates from within – the insider threat. This article explores the potential dangers posed by employees and examines whether they can prove riskier than external hackers.

A. The Insider Threat: Internal security breaches can come from employees, contractors, or business partners who have inside information, either maliciously or inadvertently exploiting their access privileges. Unlike external threats, insiders are already within the trusted perimeter of an organization, making them potentially more difficult to detect and mitigate.

1. Malicious Intent: Employees with malicious intent can pose a significant risk to an organization. Whether driven by personal grievances, financial gain, or ideology, insiders may purposefully compromise data integrity, leak sensitive information, or sabotage systems. Unlike external hackers who must bypass security measures, insiders often possess the knowledge to navigate these defenses.

2. Unintentional Risks: Not all insider threats stem from malicious intent; unintentional actions by employees can also lead to security vulnerabilities. Accidental data leaks, sharing sensitive information without proper authorization, or falling victim to phishing attacks can all result in compromises to an organization’s security.

3. Insider Knowledge: One distinguishing factor that makes employees potentially riskier than hackers is their in-depth knowledge of an organization’s systems, processes, and security protocols. This insider knowledge can be leveraged to bypass traditional security measures, making it challenging for organizations to stay one step ahead of potential threats.

4. Difficulties in Detection: Detecting insider threats can be more challenging than identifying external attacks. While organizations deploy advanced cybersecurity tools to monitor and respond to external threats, internal actors may fly under the radar, making it crucial for companies to invest in comprehensive monitoring and behavioral analytics.

B. Mitigating Insider Threats: To address the risks associated with insider threats, organizations must implement a multifaceted approach:

1. Employee Education: Provide comprehensive training to employees regarding security best practices, the potential risks of insider threats, and the importance of adhering to company policies.

2. Access Controls: Implement strict access controls to limit the permissions granted to employees. Regularly review and update access privileges based on job roles and responsibilities.

3. Behavioral Analytics: Utilize advanced analytics tools to monitor and analyze employee behavior, identifying anomalies that may indicate potential insider threats.

4. Incident Response Plan: Develop and regularly update an incident response plan that specifically addresses insider threats. Ensure that the plan includes steps for investigation, containment, and mitigation of such incidents.

Conclusion

While external hackers remain a significant threat, organizations should not underestimate the potential risks posed by their own employees. The insider threat, whether intentional or unintentional, can have severe consequences for data security and business continuity. A comprehensive cybersecurity strategy that encompasses employee education, access controls, behavioral analytics, and a robust incident response plan is essential for mitigating the risks associated with insider threats. By recognizing and addressing these challenges, organizations can create a more resilient defense against both external and internal threats.

The post The Insider Threat: Can Employees Pose a Greater Risk than Hackers appeared first on Cybersecurity Insiders.

Encore, a security stack management business held a survey recently and found that employees will leave their jobs on a respective note as their business firm has fallen victim to a cyber attack. The study was conducted on C-suite employees, CIOs and CTOs and some office workers among whom about 60% of them believed they will leave their jobs as soon as a digital attack strikes their firm.

Many of the employees who took part in the Encore survey have voted that the main reason for their quit was the reason that the organization cannot afford them anymore as the company users and patrons have lost faith in it.

Encore survey also discovered that the business firms that become a victim to cyber attacks often keep their employees in dark and that is being tagged as a fundamental error as they lose trust in their employer forever.

When a disruption is caused, recovery costs, downtime costs, winning back customer and stake holders trust become crucial and hard to achieve. Under such circumstances, a company loses business and plunges into a position where it cannot pay its employees anymore.

To counter such situations with ease, the only way is to be well-prepared by deploying automated solutions that swiftly block and respond with great resilience. However, an adequate budget, a thinking change among C-level employees and the owner of the company that cybersecurity is crucial for business is also needed though.

 

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The world is becoming a smaller place. The prospect of working in another country becomes increasingly realistic and even promising as businesses migrate toward the cloud and collaborate more closely with international partners. Amid this shift, cybersecurity professionals may wonder if they can work abroad. Cybersecurity is a worldwide concern, creating plenty of global opportunities […]… Read More

The post Working Abroad as a Cybersecurity Professional: What You Need to Know appeared first on The State of Security.

The biggest cyber security threat that businesses have to tackle is much closer than you’d think. Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigations report – found human error to be a key driver in 82% of breaches, which is why it is crucial for businesses to address cyber security awareness in the workplace and ensure that employees […]… Read More

The post 10 Things Your Workforce Can Do To Support Your Company’s Security Health appeared first on The State of Security.

 

The next time you are firing an employee for their low performance or doing it for any other reason, please make sure that the data they possess has been handover to you perfectly, i.e. scientifically.

Otherwise, they could get involved with threat actors and target your organization with a sophisticated cyber attack that can shut down your organization on a permanent note.

Yes, what you’ve read is right! According to a study carried out by Unit 42, a business subsidiary of Palo Alto Networks, most of the cyber-attacks on organizations usually emerged from Insider Threats.

Usually, disgruntled employees, those who lost key position in a company because of recession, COVID-19 shut downs and usual layoffs for reasons started contacting cyber criminals and were found supporting them in destroying data of their past company, accessing it and stealing it fraudulently and selling that data to cover losses.

In coming days, researchers predict that such attacks arising from ex-employees may rise due to declining economic conditions all over the globe, mainly because of a rise in inflation and a surge in prices of essential commodities.

“Currently cybercrime has emerged into an easy business to make money as it costs low to launch cyber attacks with a guarantee of high returns,” says Wendi Whitmore, SVP and Head of Unit 42- Palo Alto Networks.

Patching vulnerabilities, restricting data access to employees if/when not required, following a data security protocol when an employee is leaving the organization and last, but not the least, taking care of them and understanding their needs can help organizations avoid cyber attack embarrassments because of insider threats.

No matter how good we stay with employees, only the money speaks. So, giving a pay hike to them- based on their performance, keeping a tab of their birthdays and allowing them to celebrate with office colleagues, understanding their work environment needs might also help in making employees happy!

But is it possible in reality?

 

The post Displeased employees leading to 75% of Cyber Attacks appeared first on Cybersecurity Insiders.

The most relevant cybersecurity threat to most businesses may be human, not technical. A sudden wave of cybercrime paired with longstanding tech labor challenges has created a cybersecurity skills gap, leaving companies without the expertise they need. Some companies lack dedicated security staff entirely, while others have a small, overworked department trying to manage massive […]… Read More

The post 5 Potential Solutions to the Cybersecurity Talent Shortage appeared first on The State of Security.