No doubt, external cyber-attacks are getting increasingly common worldwide, and all businesses, big and small, are becoming a victim of it. But, while the external cyber threats are the elephant in the room, internal cybersecurity is being significantly overlooked.
The ignorance of the matter is causing a gradual increase in the internal cybercrime rate. In fact, according to IBM’s 2016 Cybersecurity Intelligence Index, 60% of cyber attacks are carried out from inside an organization. So, like it or not, your biggest cybersecurity risk is on your payroll already.
However, distinguishing between appropriate data access and a true insider threat isn’t that easy. For this reason, organizations must detect internal cyber threats and take measures to prevent it.
What Are Insider Cyber Threats?
More often than not, employees and people from an organization are given trusted access to data. When these people become careless or develop malicious intent, the information becomes at the risk of getting exposed and landing into the hands of people who might want to harm the company.
Data breaches due to internal threats occur when users, no matter their intent, intersect with data. And although the user’s intent may vary, data violation can cost an organization billions of dollars. To prevent this, the company must develop an environment that holds the concerned person accountable.
Below are some of the ways you can protect your company’s data from internal threats.
Implement Risk Assessment Methodology
When it comes to internal data security, your company can not move forward without a plan as it will undoubtedly fail. The risk assessment methodology will provide your company with a holistic approach and a set plan for protecting your data from increasing internal cyber-attacks.
The risk assessment methodology will help you in the following ways;
- Analyze and evaluate all your company’s online data and help you develop a roadmap to protect it.
- Figure out weak links in your online landscape that can make your company’s data vulnerable to threats and attacks.
- Analyze and observe risk trends which will help you plan and prevent future attacks.
- Come up with solutions to better manage your employees.
- Implement the right kind of technology to prevent such attacks.
Access Management
One of the biggest concerns while using the cloud for your business’s operations is knowing where the data exists and who has access to it. This doesn’t mean you have to question sources providing the cloud service to you but people within your organization that might save sensitive data to their personal computers and hard drives.
Therefore, to know precisely where the data exists and who has access to it, you need to manage all entry points. Limiting your employees’ access only to data that they may need to do their job is an effective way to prevent internal attacks.
Map Activities Of Suspicious Employees
Employee behavior gives it all away! However, this doesn’t mean you start monitoring everything they do around the office. Mapping suspicious employees’ activities over networks and around office files online and assessing behavior patterns on your network through various programs can help you prevent an attack early on.
If you notice some unusual activity from one of your staff members, for example, if he is logging in at an odd hour or downloading a large number of files without notifying superiors, then you may be looking at a possible attack.
Educate Your Employees
Out of all the insider cyber attacks, one-third of attacks are due to people who accidentally enable or allow a cyber attack. They unknowingly do it by plugging an infected USB into the office computer, opening a spam email, or downloading suspicious files. The best way to prevent such attacks is to train and educate your employees on cybersecurity practices.
About GPS Security Group
GPS Security Group offers a full range of internal and external cybersecurity services to its clients in Edmonton, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Calgary, and throughout multiple areas in Western Canada. For more information, visit our website at gps-securitygroup.com or contact us at 1-844-989-2017 for personalized service.
