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What is an Insider Threat? (Types, How to Detect)
What is an Insider Threat?
An insider threat is a form of cyberattack perpetrated by someone who works for or has allowed access to a company's networks or systems. Insider threats might be current or former employees, consultants, board members, or business partners, and they can be deliberate or inadvertent.
In cybersecurity, an insider threat occurs when someone with authorized access to a company's data and resources uses that access to harm the company's equipment, information, networks, and systems. Corruption, espionage, resource depletion, sabotage, terrorism, and illegal information exposure are all examples. It can also be used as a launchpad for virus or ransomware assaults by cybercriminals.
Types of Insider Threats
Current and former workers, contractors, business partners, and associates are all insiders who might be dangerous. However, anyone with appropriate access to a company's computer systems and data, such as suppliers or vendors, might cause harm.
Insiders differ in terms of motive, awareness, amount of access, and intent. Insiders are classified as negligent, criminal, or credential by the Ponemon Institute. Insider risks are divided into four types by Gartner: pawns, goofs, collaborators, and lone wolves. Note: The Ponemon Institute and Gartner provide independent research, consulting, and instructional studies for businesses and governments.
The Pawn
Employees are pushed into executing nefarious behaviors by the Pawns, who are completely oblivious of it. Whether it's installing malware or handing over personal information to scammers via spear-phishing or social engineering, pawns are detrimental to a company.
The Goof
Goofs are users who are either unaware of or arrogant about security measures. They deliberately try to get around security restrictions out of convenience or stupidity. In addition, goofs violate security regulations by leaving susceptible data and resources exposed, allowing attackers easy access. According to Gartner's paper, 'Go-to-Market for Advanced Insider Threat Detection,' '90% of insider events are caused by goofs.'
The Collaborator
Collaborators work with outsiders to perpetrate a crime such as rivals or nation-states. They make use of their access to steal intellectual property and client information, as well as disrupt corporate operations for financial or personal gain.
The Lone Wolf
Lone wolves also behave autonomously and viciously without external influence or persuasion, frequently for financial gain. When lone wolves have heightened levels of privilege, such as system administrators or database administrators, they are more hazardous
How Do Scammers Take Advantage of Weak Insiders?
If a fraudster's goal is a protected system, they concentrate on gaining access to an employee's privileges. For their cybercrimes, fraudsters prey on pawns and fools. To get credentials, they employ a variety of strategies and techniques, including phishing emails, watering holes, and weaponized malware, to mention a few.
Fraudsters can travel laterally through a system, elevate their rights, make modifications, and access sensitive data or money with those credentials. Using a command-andcontrol (C2) server, fraudsters can access data or information from insecure places during outbound transmission. They have the ability to adjust the outbound attempt or undertake bulk outbound transfers.
Fraudsters attack in the following ways −
- Look for places where you can be vulnerable
- Use phishing emails or viruses to deceive others
- Find a rogue user
- Obtain credentials that have been hacked
- Make the most of your access
- To get to the targeted goal, move laterally
- As needed, increase privilege
- Gain access to assets
- Access is being abused
- Obfuscate network activity
- Change the data
- Exfiltrate information
How to Protect Yourself from Insider Threats?
Insider attacks may be avoided by continuously monitoring user behavior, acquiring realtime insight into network activity, and acting quickly in the case of a security breach.
The following four-step security event method is used to avoid insider threats −
Detect
On their networks, businesses must be able to identify harmful, suspicious, or unexpected activities. Real-time visibility into user logins, such as where and when a user signed in to the corporate network and from what location, is essential for threat detection. Organizations may use security solutions and quick threat detection to improve network visibility, track staff behaviors, and get notifications about unusual activity.
Investigate
Organizations must be able to examine suspicious conduct right once whenever it is discovered. It's pointless to discover suspicious behavior but wait several days to investigate it because the attacker will have most likely increased their privileges and carried out their attack.
Prevent
When suspected behavior is confirmed to be harmful or unauthorized, companies must take steps to prevent people from getting access to their networks and systems. They require a threat prevention system that prevents an attacker from accessing data and eavesdropping on user behavior.
Virtual private networks (VPNs), which encrypt data and allow users to keep their browsing behavior secret behind a VPN solution, may also help organizations against insider threats.
Protect
Organizations must secure their data and safeguard their users and devices by implementing security rules. Critical assets, including facilities, people, technology, intellectual property, and customer data, must be safeguarded at all times through the use of appropriate access rights and privileges.
All personnel must be aware of the security measures they must follow, as well as their data privileges and intellectual property rights, which must be properly recorded. This final step is critical for adhering to increasingly rigorous data protection requirements.
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