The potential risk that employees and officers of a company can cause more harm to the IT infrastructure or to the company in general than external threats such as viruses and cracker attacks. Also known as an "authorized user threat," disgruntled employees have easy access to confidential data, especially if their feelings are not made public.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Profile of the World's Top Hackers
- Data theft and breaches from cybercrime may have cost businesses as much as $1 trillion globally in lost intellectual property and expenditures for repairing damage. And this current economic climate has undoubtedly created more opportunities for hackers, criminals, and industrial espionage firms who are targeting critical infrastructures and systems...
- Webcasts 2009-06-29
- Survey: 37% of employees would become insiders given the right incentive
- Survey: 37% of employees would become insiders given the right incentive37% of tech employees are corrupt?Not at all good. If you'd sell out your employer for any price, you're just as corrupt as a public official who accepts bribes. The only issue remaining is whether you're worth your...
- Discussion threads 2009-04-29
- Defending Against the Insider Threat
- The security threat posed by company insiders is all too real. In these times of economic uncertainty and widespread layoffs, the potential to create disgruntled employees is all the greater. But there are steps one can take to protect one's self, starting with a sound, defense-in-depth, collaborative security strategy that...
- White papers 2009-03-28
- Diebold ATMs infected with credit card skimming malware
- Theory comes into practice. Yesterday, Sophos Principal Virus Research Vanja Svacjer posted an analysis of Troj/Skimer-A, a malware affecting Windows-based Diebold cash machines and capable of intercepting credit card details and their associated PINs. The malware is exclusively coded to target Russian, Ukranian and American currency transactions,...
- Blog posts 2009-03-18
- Server and Application Protection - Behind the Lines
- Cyber attacks can bypass or penetrate even top-of-the-line perimeter security, and it's increasingly recognized as a security best practice to provide server and application protection to detect and prevent these attacks as an integral part of a defense-in-depth strategy. A comprehensive server and application protection system will include: firewall, IDS/IPS,...
- White papers 2009-03-01
- Straight Talking - As Crunch Bites, Don't Forget the Logs
- Managing log files may seem like a mundane issue but doing it well tightens data security and boosts compliance efforts. Managing risk, compliance and security are objectives that still need to be achieved even while organisations rush to cut costs. The insider threat in particular has always been a key...
- White papers 2009-02-06
- New Insider Threat Emerges in the New Economy
- Information security experts are bracing for the law of unintended consequences to swing into action in 2009 as layoffs, downsizing and low morale bring the worst out of trusted insiders looking to profit off of proprietary intellectual property, customer contact lists, trade secrets and any other sensitive information. Many employees...
- White papers 2009-01-13
- Thwarting Insider Threat, Strengthening Communications, and Meeting Policy With Secure Internal Communications
- Internal email, if unprotected, contains the same security level as a postcard. Without email encryption, malicious, as well as curious, insiders have complete access to sensitive company information, including financial data, trade secrets, and customer data. This webcast covers the benefits of email encryption for strengthening communications while protecting against...
- Webcasts 2009-01-01
- Protect Yourself Against Internal Threats: Reduce the Risk and Liability of Data Breaches
- The threat of insider data breaches is substantial. Research indicates 70 percent of security incidents incurring actual losses occur internally, so there is need of plan to protect the critical assets. The presenter shows how to protect the organization from internal data breaches. The presenter will also share the results...
- Webcasts 2009-01-01
- Dealing With the Malicious Insider
- This paper looks at a number of issues relating to the malicious insider and the nature of motivation, loyalty and the type of attacks that occur. The paper also examines the changing environmental, social, cultural and business issues that have resulted in an increased exposure to the insider threat. The...
- White papers 2008-11-30
- Malware found in Lenovo software package
- Computer maker Lenovo is shipping a malware-infected software package to Windows XP users, according to warning from anti-virus researchers at Microsoft. The malicious file was identified by Microsoft as Win32/Meredrop, a Trojan dropper that is used to install and execute multiple malicious executables on an infected computer....
- Blog posts 2008-11-19
- Data leaks: Watch out for careless and disgruntled employees
- Outside hackers certainly can keep IT departments scrambling to keep a company's network and data secure. But what about "The Insider Threat," employees who are either careless or disgruntled with a company's data and pose even bigger threats? Cisco, completing a three-part study on the topic, released...
- Blog posts 2008-11-13
- Data Leakage Worldwide: The High Cost of Insider Threats
- The findings from a global security study on data leakage revealed that the data loss resulting from employee behavior poses a much more extensive threat than many IT professionals believe. Commissioned by Cisco and conducted by U.S.-based market research firm InsightExpress, the study polled more than 2000 employees and information...
- White papers 2008-11-01
- News to know: Clickjacking redux; SAP pricing; BlackBerry Storm; Windows 7
- Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily: Ryan Naraine: Webcam hijack demo highlights clickjacking threat Dancho Danchev: Atrivo/Intercage's disconnection briefly disrupts spam levels Adobe posts workaround for clickjacking flaw, NoScript releases ClearClick ...
- Blog posts 2008-10-08
- Another online poker site caught cheating: UltimateBet
- Another online poker site caught cheating: UltimateBetAnd this is Zero Day material because...?Where's the computer security bit of the story?RE: Another online poker site caught cheating: UltimateBetThat's a funny comment.RE: Another online poker site caught cheating: UltimateBetWell Duh! There is no "true" security value in this story. Gambling is inherently...
- Discussion threads 2008-09-24
- News to know: Apple sued; IDF; Adobe hijack; Microsoft-Novell
- Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily: Sam Diaz: Apple faces suit over iPhone. Is it still worth the switch? Techmeme IDF wrap: Christopher Dawson: New touch screen Classmates unveiled today...
- Blog posts 2008-08-21
- 2008 Study on the Uncertainty of Data Breach Detection: Report of IT Practitioners in the UK, Germany & France
- Mainframe data security has become a critical IT issue. Typically, organizations address this risk by locking down applications to keep unauthorized outside users from accessing them. What this approach does not address is the threat of the negligent or malicious insider who is authorized to access an organization's sensitive information....
- White papers 2008-08-11
- The OneSign Guide to Thwarting Insider Threats
- When people think about IT saboteurs, most of them picture a professional cyber-criminal or hacker bent on stealing confidential information or wreaking havoc. In both cases, the perpetrator is an outside party who breaches the data network of a company, institution, or government entity with malicious intent. In response to...
- White papers 2008-08-01
- 90% of all statistics can be made to say anything... 50% of the time, aka my thoughts on the Verizon report
- ** Update 06/23/2008: I realize I didn't do a very good job of talking about what we're reviewing here. This is in response to the statistics gathered by Verizon related to Forensic Analysis of Data Breaches over a four year span. First off, let me...
- Blog posts 2008-06-22
- Are you wary of the insider on the outside?
- Whenever the risks from the inside threat are discussed, it's usually about the disgruntled/malicious employee within the firewall abusing permissions to steal data or plant malware in sensitive parts of the network. But, there's an insider on the outside that's often forgotten -- the ex-employee with access...
- Blog posts 2008-05-20
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