Insider threats occur when employees, contractors, or other authorised users intentionally or accidentally expose systems and sensitive data through misuse, phishing, malware, or poor security practices. Organisations can reduce insider risk through least-privilege access, continuous monitoring, behavioural analytics, employee training, and layered hardware- and software-based security controls.
Insider threats can be either malicious—for example, someone with authorized access to an organization’s systems deliberately steals sensitive data and sells it for personal gain—or innocent—for example, an employee unwittingly clicks on a phishing link in a seemingly legitimate email, introducing malware into company systems. Either way, insider threats can be devastating and costly: Globally, the total annual average cost to companies of resolving insider threats is $16.2 million. Many insider incidents begin with ordinary access privileges, which makes early detection especially important.
It’s essential for companies that leverage digital tools to establish a well-rounded, robust strategy for combating insider threats, with the primary goal, whenever possible, of preventing them altogether. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council share expert tips to help organizations across industries address (or better yet, avoid) insider threats.
Insider threats arise when authorised users—either maliciously or accidentally—compromise systems through actions such as data theft, phishing, or malware exposure, costing organisations an average of $16.2 million annually. Effective mitigation of insider threats requires a proactive strategy that combines continuous monitoring with AI-driven analytics embedded at the hardware level to detect abnormal behaviour in real time. Hardware-based security adds a deeper layer of protection, enabling threats to be identified and contained before sensitive data is compromised.
Our CEO Camellia Chan contributed her expertise to this article, sharing, “A smart strategy is leveraging AI-driven analytics, embedded at the hardware level, for continuous monitoring. This approach detects unusual activity in real time, whether from intentional or accidental actions. This approach is crucial because hardware-level security offers a deeper layer of protection, identifying threats before data is compromised.”
Read the full article to hear what other cybersecurity experts had to say: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2024/10/24/insider-threats-expert-ways-to-address-and-avoid-them/
Explore our solutions or speak with our experts today to learn more about our suite of hardware-based security solutions.
This article was originally published on Forbes, as a part of the Forbes Technology Council.
