The frequency and cost of insider threats have increased by 31% and 47%, respectively between 2018 and 2020. Risks will increase due to remote working.
External threats are often the focus of security. But insider negligence is an under-addressed area of risk mitigation concludes Ponemon Institute’s report: 2020 Cost of Insider Threats.
Their research defined three insider threats causing breaches:
- Careless or negligent employees or contractors – 62%
- A criminal or malicious insider – 23%
- A credential thief – 14%
The report identifies five signs that your organisation is at risk:
- Untrained employees do not know or understand security policies.
- Devices are left unsecured.
- Data is stored in unsecured Cloud locations.
- Security is undermined to simplify tasks.
- Patching is not up to date.
The report divides the costs of insider incidents into seven areas. Of those, investigation and escalation are attracting the highest increase in spending. These are the report’s areas of concern and cost:
- Monitoring and surveillance. How to detect and deter insider incidents.
- Investigation. Discovering the source, scope and magnitude of incidents.
- Escalation. Raising awareness with key stakeholders and organising initial management response.
- Incident response. Reacting to the incident including a final management response.
- Containment. Lessening severity and shutting down operations.
- Ex-post response. Addressing root causes to minimise future incidents.
- Remediation. Repair systems and processes and restore assets.