it’s relatively easy for you to employ people whom you trust personally. But as your outfit grows, that becomes harder and harder. Eventually, you have to delegate the hiring decision and let other people take over. When that happens, your grip on who comes into your company is loosened.
The problem with this is that the biggest threat to your cyber security isn’t hackers out there on the internet. It’s insiders, deliberately sabotaging your firm for their own gain. According to IBM, upwards of 60 percent of all cyber attacks are carried out by insiders. IBM also found that businesses in finance and health care were most at risk.
Wikimedia CommonsSo what does that mean for today’s business leaders? What can they do the prevent insiders from derailing their businesses?
First off, it’s a good idea to identify the risks that you face. Generally, there are three types of insider risk. The first are employees who deliberately set out to sabotage your systems. These people are experts at pretending to be one person, but who are in reality quite another. The next bunch of people are those who deliberately leak passwords to their connections outside of the organization. People do this either to sell the information or because they have a vendetta against the company. Finally, there is human error. This is where people accidentally expose a company’s systems to hackers. They could do this by falling prey to a phishing attempt
So what can businesses do?
Don’t Overlook First Lines Of Defense
Most companies rely on their spam filters to neutralize the threat of phishing. But as this phishing blog points out, spam filters aren’t always effective. For instance, around 1.5 percent of email spam has some sort of malicious link.
If companies are going to deal with the phishing problem once and for all, they have to fight it at the source. The source, of course, is employee ignorance of the problem. Employers need to train employees to detect the signs of phishing and to avoid it at all cost.
Use Deep Analytics
People are creatures of habit. People get up, go to work and do the same things, day in, day out. It helps to make the day more manageable. But when somebody is trying to attack your company, their behavior may change. That’s why it’s important to keep track of your employees with deep analytics. Deep analytics can monitor changes in employee behavior and alert you of anything suspicious. Monitoring data like this isn’t just good for catching insiders. It’s also useful for making sure that policy is being adhered to.
Identify Your Most Important Digital Assets
Insider cyber criminals know about your company’s most valuable assets and they want them. This means that it’s a good idea for you to spend some time thinking about what stuff in your firm is worth taking. Make a list of all your most valuable digital assets. Then make sure that these assets are protected and monitored frequently.
