Cybersecurity is an industry that has become the latest trend in the Information Technology world.
It gains prominence with the fast-growing and evolving development in technological devices and software applications. It allows developers and users to protect their programs and hardware from cybersecurity threats that are harmful.
These cybersecurity threats come in different forms and approaches, and will not be selective of their attacks. Many people fall victim to these attacks because they lack the awareness and tools to protect themselves, even large companies are still not exempted.
Companies and organizations need to be more assertive in their security protocols. It is a fact that attacks have increased and happened more often than we thought.
In this topic, we will look into companies’ vulnerabilities to insider threats by discussing the nature of this cyber attack.
Insider Threats
Insider threats are a common type of cyber attack that targets employees or users. It has been reported that this method has become more rampant among organizations.
31% of the community has believed that this threat causes more damage compared to a 14% vote on external threat elements. Even with the given statistics, many companies still neglect to see the importance of training and giving awareness among their staff.
Top companies, however, do follow certain security requirements that are needed to operate, but the risks lie among those in the middle to the small type of businesses. This goes for top management level employees who are more secured and well thought of than those in the middle to lower rank staff.
Facts About Insider Threats
Experts have looked into this matter and discovered that 90% of companies feel they are vulnerable to insider threats. This includes companies in major to minor types of industries and is not limited to technology or communication-based sectors.
Insiders that pose the biggest threats
Within a company or business, 56% of the employees that are prone to these threats are ‘regular employees’, where 55% are from employees that are given special privileges from IT, and 42% comes from company partners, freelancers, service providers, and contractors.
Types of data that are vulnerable to insider threats
Data that are high risks for insider threats with a 57% stats are confidential business information such as financial documents, personal or customer data, and employee data.
It is followed by privileged account information with 52%, sensitive personal information with 49%, company intellectual property at 32%, employee data at up to 31%, and operational information or infrastructure data at 27%.
Threat Difficulties
The difficulty with this type of threat is by locating the intruder as well as the intrusion. If you doubt the capabilities of your working staff, they will also lose their trust in you. This goes that anyone from the company can be a source of risk, regardless of the position and rank.
Reasons why insiders become a threat
Employees are triggered to become a threat when an employee is not well recognized, low in salary, poor management, ineffective exit process, giving them longer and hard work hours when they are about to leave the office, not oriented or aware of threats, and malicious intentions.
Career Opportunity
Reliable Cyber Solutions, LLC., is your trusted cybersecurity firm. We specialize in network and information security as well as run an online educational program that offers selective cybersecurity courses and certifications. Get to know us and visit our website at RCyberSolutions.