- October 2, 2024
- fothion_re
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- Cybersecurity Awareness - Oct 2024
Defend Your Business from Insider Threats 🛡️👀⚠
You might think you’ve done everything you can to keep your business safe from cyber threats. You’ve got the best security tools out there to fend off outside attacks, but what about the risks that come from inside?
Whether they mean to or not, your employees, vendors, partners, and even you could be potential threats to your business. That’s why it’s important to know how to shield your business from the inside. In this blog, we’re going to dive into different internal threats, identify red flags, and, most importantly, show you how to avert them.
Common Insider Threats
Insider threats come in various forms, each presenting distinct risks. Common threats include:
1️⃣ Data theft: This is when an employee or someone in the company grabs or leaks sensitive info for personal benefit or malicious purposes. It could be taking company devices that have important data on them or copying stuff digitally, both of which count as data theft.
Example: A worker at a big healthcare service company downloads and sells protected patient info on the dark web.
2️⃣ Sabotage: This is when a frustrated employee, an activist, or even someone from a rival company mess with your company on purpose. They might delete important files, infect your devices, or lock you out of vital systems by changing passwords.
Example: A ticked-off barista at a coffee shop deliberately messes with the coffee machine, causing it to break down and costing the shop money.
3️⃣ Unauthorized access: This is a security breach where hackers or unhappy employees access critical business information. It can also happen when individuals accidentally access sensitive data.
Example: An employee uses their login to access confidential information and leaks it to competitors.
4️⃣ Negligence & error: Both can create insider threats and pose security risks. Training can minimize errors, but addressing negligence demands stricter enforcement.
Example: An employee might click a malicious link and download malware or misplace a laptop with sensitive data. In either scenario, company data is compromised.
5️⃣ Credential sharing: Credential sharing is like giving your house keys to a friend. You can’t control their actions. They might only take some sugar, or they might throw a party. Sharing your confidential password with colleagues or friends greatly increases the risk of a cyberattack on your business.
Example: An employee accesses their work email on a friend’s laptop. If they forget to log out and that laptop gets hacked, the hacker gains access to the company’s confidential information.
Spot the red flags 🔍🚩
It’s important to spot insider threats as soon as possible. Just watch out for these obvious signs:
🚩 Unusual access patterns: An employee accesses confidential company information irrelevant to their job.
🚩 Excessive data transfers: An employee downloads a large volume of customer data onto a memory stick.
🚩 Authorization requests: Someone repeatedly requests access to business-critical information without needing it for their job.
🚩 Use of unapproved devices: Accessing confidential data on personal laptops or devices.
🚩 Disabling security tools: Someone from your company disables their antivirus or firewall.
🚩 Behavioral changes: An employee exhibiting abnormal behavior suddenly misses deadlines and shows signs of extreme stress.
Enhance your defenses ✨🔰
Follow these five steps to create a solid cybersecurity framework that keeps your business secure:
❶ Implement a strong password policy and promote multi-factor authentication.
❷ Limit employee access to necessary data and systems, and regularly review access privileges.
❸ Train employees on insider threats and security best practices.
❹ Regularly back up essential data to recover from data loss incidents.
❺ Create a detailed incident response plan to address insider threat incidents.
Don’t fight internal threats by yourself 👨💻🤝👩💻
We know that protecting your business from insider threats can seem like a big task, especially when you’re doing it on your own. That’s where we come in! As an experienced IT service provider, we’re here to help you put in place strong security measures.
Let us help you protect your business from the inside out. Reach out to us, and we’ll guide you on how to spot potential threats and respond effectively if something goes down.
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