Three Security Strategies to Protect Your Business Against Insider Threats

Insider attacks on corporate data and resultant losses have a negative effect on the victims who have the difficult tasks of recovery, plus the stress of managing the long-lasting impact to trust and credibility.

In the case of the Target breach where 40 million records were lost, costing the company millions, the CEO paid the ultimate price by having to resign.

Insider threats can be either malicious or accidental. Employees might do things that put an organization and its data at risk—even if not intended. Outsiders—suppliers, contractors, and others with inappropriate access—might steal user credentials.

The types of users that put key business assets at most risk are insiders such as employees, management, IT staff, and contractors plus outsiders through compromising insider credentials. Fortify your fortress—monitor who gets what, when, and where. It is critical to manage admin privileges, monitor use, and guard access to networks and data.

The threat landscape is complex and continues to develop, putting pressure on security systems. A Q3 2014 Harris Poll reveals that 40% of organizations experienced a data breach or failed a compliance audit in the last year. Proper controls must be installed for all of these groups with the opportunity to reach inside corporate networks in order to prevent the theft of unprotected data.

While the bulk of sensitive data assets are databases, file servers, and cloud service environments, mobile is perceived as a high-risk area of concern. Security measures need to protect current business models and be ready to scale for future needs—both projected and unknown possibilities.

Concerns about overprivileged user access have reached the top of security agendas. Controlling, monitoring and auditing access rights for employees, IT personnel, contractors and service providers, plus business partners are top priorities.

At cStor, we look at each client’s needs in order to design specific protection measures and make recommendations for where security budgets should be invested. Security spending is expected to continue with double-digit increases. It is critical to target spending on areas to control access and protect data in a way that supports continued business activity and compliance requirements. To know and to control who gets access and what they can do with that access provides the ability to detect and thwart misuse that could put sensitive data at risk.