Is Your Organization Prepared for Insider Threats?

Utilizing the power of Splunk combined with identity and access management solutions can prevent security breaches before they happen.

Your business probably has some sort of cybersecurity to keep hackers out – but new research suggests the worst threats may come from inside your company.

‘Insider threats’ are security breaches caused by the very people that every business trusts the most: its own employees and contractors.

According to a recent poll of 472 companies conducted by CA Technologies, over half (53 per cent) said their firms had been hit by insider cybersecurity incidents during the previous year.

Unintentional ‘oopsies’

Although some insider breaches are maliciously committed by people like disgruntled staff, the majority are actually unintentional mistakes.

“The most common culprit of insider threat[s] is accidental exposure by employees,” the report concludes.

According to the same researchers, many of these incidents occur when workers fall victim to phishing scams. The study notes that, “cybersecurity experts view phishing attempts as the biggest vulnerability for accidental insider threats.”

The Cost

Phishing and other insider threats are extremely costly for businesses. A recent study by the prestigious Ponemon Institute estimates the average cost of a breach caused by employees or contractors is $283,281 – more than a quarter of a million dollars.

Downtime and Disruption

Would your business bounce back quickly from an insider attack? Not likely; it took an average of more than two months for companies in the Ponemon survey to fully recover.

A Growing Risk

Insider breaches are also happening more often. Ponemon says that in the two short years between 2016 and 2018, the average number of insider incidents caused by employees or contractors rose from 10.5 to 13.4 a year.

Now that you know just how costly, crippling and common these internal threats are, what can you do to protect your business from them?

IAM

That’s where Identity and Access Management (IAM) comes in. The technology allows you to assign a unique digital identity to each user on your network, whether they’re an employee, customer or contractor. You can then define exactly what they have access to, such as your company’s network, apps and data.

You can also program privileges to control access for each user within specific time frames, locations or situations. Many IAM systems use cutting edge data analytics software to detect unusual digital activity that could pose a security risk to your business.

For example, if an employee attempted to access your company data at 3 a.m., the IAM system would alert you to that anomaly and deny access. If the activity makes sense because that employee is in Australia on a business trip, you can simply override the alert and restore their privileges.

The Splunk Solution

Splunk Enterprise is one of the world leaders in analyzing unstructured data (machine exhaust). Its solutions monitor and correlate activities of your IAM solution deployed in public or private cloud or on-premise environments – for companies of all sizes. Splunk Enterprise provides operational and security visibility to insider and external threats, like hackers who try to hijack valid user credentials to attack your company’s network and steal its data.

Getting on board with Splunk doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. With the Solsys + Splunk Quick Start Bundle, you can deploy Splunk Enterprise throughout your operations within just two weeks. You can consult with a Splunk specialist, customize Splunk Enterprise for your needs and select a service package scalable to the size of your company. There’s also Splunk Enterprise training (on-site or virtual), plus remote support during and after deployment.