What Is an Insider Threat?

An insider threat is when someone misuses their authorized access to organizational systems and data to negatively impact the organization. This person does not necessarily need to be an employee—third-party vendors, contractors, and partners could also pose a threat. Insider threats can be unintentional or malicious, depending on the threat’s intent. Unintentional insider threats can arise from a negligent employee falling victim to a phishing attack. Examples of malicious threats include intentional data theft, corporate espionage, or data destruction.

Your biggest asset—people—is also your biggest risk and the root cause of insider threats. Yet most security tools only analyze computer, network, or system data.

Threats can come from any organizational level and from anyone with access to proprietary data. In fact, 25% of all security incidents involve insiders.^[1]

Recent insider threat statistics reveal that 69% of respondents say their organizations have experienced an attempted or successful threat or corruption of data in the last 12 months.

Not all insiders pose a threat, but their privileged position and access in an organization make them potential attack vectors for security breaches, whether intentional or unintentional.

Understanding these diverse categories of insider threats underscores the imperative for a holistic approach to cybersecurity, highlighting the importance of fostering an organizational culture steeped in security awareness and vigilance at all levels.

Effective insider threat detection and prevention require understanding both behavioral and technical indicators.

Behavior Patterns

Common behavioral red flags include:

• Frequently violates data protection and compliance rules
• Persistent interpersonal conflicts
• Declining job performance
• Disengagement from work responsibilities
• Financial irregularities
• Unwarranted interest in areas outside the job scope
• Unusual absenteeism patterns

These behavior patterns can indicate an insider’s malicious intent or negligence.

Technical Indicators

In addition to behavior patterns, technical indicators can help detect insider threats and data theft. Some common technical indicators include:

• Unusual data movement: Excessive spikes in data downloads, sending large amounts of data outside the company, and using tools like Airdrop to transfer files can be signs of an insider threat.
• Use of unsanctioned software and hardware: Negligent or malicious insiders may install unapproved tools to simplify data exfiltration or bypass security controls. This “shadow IT” creates security gaps.
• Increased requests for escalated privileges or permissions: When an increasing number of people request access to sensitive information, it raises the risk of insider threats, whether from malicious intent or accidental exposure.
• Access to information unrelated to their job function: If an employee attempts to access data not pertinent to their role, it could be a sign of an insider threat.
• Renamed files where the file extension doesn’t match the content: Malicious insiders may try to mask data exfiltration by renaming files to hide their actual content.
• Abnormal access times outside regular business hours: Unusually timed logins and activity at odd hours can help detect potential insider threats.
• Unusual logon activity accessing credentials such as multiple sessions: Suspicious credential usage patterns can indicate an insider threat. Changing passwords can also signal unusual activity.
• Unknown locations accessing resources: Logins from unfamiliar locations may signal an insider threat.

These technical indicators can be used with behavior patterns to identify potential insider threats and mitigate the associated risks. By understanding and monitoring these behavior patterns and technical indicators, organizations can better detect and respond to insider threats, ultimately safeguarding their critical information and systems.

• High-privileged users such as network administrators, executives, partners, and other users with permissions across sensitive data.
• Developers with access to data using a development or staging environment.
• Resigned or terminated employees with enabled profiles and credentials, particularly those who may have left the organization on unfavorable terms.
• Acquisition managers and employees involved in mergers, including those from newly acquired companies, who may have different security protocols.

• Vendors with internal access, especially those providing essential services or managing key infrastructure components.
• Contractors with internal access, including temporary staff and consultants working on specific projects or departments.
• Partners with internal access, such as strategic allies, resellers, or joint venture participants, sharing resources or data.
• In-house and outsourced IT support staff, who have broad access to systems and user accounts for troubleshooting purposes.
• Human resources personnel with access to sensitive employee data and background information.

• One-third of all organizations have faced an insider threat incident.^[2]
• 50% of incidents unintentionally exposed private or sensitive information.^[3]
• 40% of incidents included compromised or stolen employee records.^[3]

• 33% of incidents compromised or stole customer records.^[3]
• 32% of incidents compromised or stole confidential records (trade secrets or intellectual property).^[3]

While these industries are particularly vulnerable, no sector is immune to insider threats. Organizations of all types and sizes should implement robust insider threat detection and prevention programs to safeguard their data and assets.

Inside threats are a much different beast to tame. Organizations with an exceptional cybersecurity posture can still encounter data leaks and breaches with potentially catastrophic outcomes. Although challenging, recognizing indicators and detecting insider threats is critical for organizations with many employees, vendors, and contractors with access to internal data.

Here are some techniques and tools to prevent potential damage to an organization’s data and reputation by detecting and mitigating malicious insider threats:

• Behavioral analytics: These tools analyze user behavior patterns to identify anomalies and detect potential insider threats. They can detect if an employee is suddenly accessing unusual files or systems, which may indicate malicious intent.
• Data loss prevention: DLP solutions monitor and protect sensitive data by identifying and preventing unauthorized access, transfer, or data leakage. They can help organizations enforce access controls and monitor data movements.
• Cybersecurity analytics and monitoring solutions: Cybersecurity analytics solutions that provide real-time visibility by sending alerts and notifications when suspicious user activity and data movement are detected.
• User behavior analytics: UEBA tools analyze user behavior patterns to identify anomalies, such as an employee suddenly accessing unusual files or systems, which may indicate malicious intent.
• Machine learning: ML models can be trained to identify insider threats by analyzing patterns of behavior associated with insider attacks, leading to more effective detection and response to potential threats.
• Threat hunting: Proactive threat hunting involves seeking anomalous insider behavior not detected by security controls alone. This can be done using techniques such as UEBA, ML, and human intelligence to identify potential threats.
• Insider threat management and security solutions: ITM software monitors user activities and data movements, identifying abnormal behavior patterns and automating responses to potential security incidents.
• Real-time monitoring: Tracking user activity and data movements in real-time can help organizations detect and respond to potential insider threats more effectively. This can be achieved using solutions that offer customizable alert thresholds to minimize false positives and real-time threat review capabilities.
• User feedback learning: Integrating user feedback to refine anomaly detection models can help organizations tailor their threat detection systems to specific organizational needs, improving the accuracy of their insider threat detection efforts.
• Kill chain detection: Employing cyber kill chain detection can help organizations uncover lateral malware movement or insider threat activities, identifying irregular behaviors and command-and-control (C&C) communication.

By implementing these techniques and tools, organizations can improve their insider threat detection and response capabilities, ultimately reducing the risk of data loss and system compromise.

Insider threats are challenging to detect and prevent, requiring a multifaceted approach. To effectively stop them, organizations should implement a comprehensive security strategy that includes a combination of the following best practices and tools:

• Establish a security policy: Assemble a proactive security policy that includes procedures for detecting and blocking misuse by insiders. Consider including the consequences of potential insider threat activity and outline guidelines for investigating misuse.
• Implement a threat detection governance program: Establish an ongoing and proactive insider threat detection program in collaboration with your leadership team. Ensure executives and key stakeholders are well informed on the scope of malicious code reviews, with privileged users treated as potential threats.
• Secure your infrastructure: Restrict physical and logical access to critical infrastructure and sensitive information using strict access controls. Apply the principle of least privilege to limit employee access and implement robust identity verification systems to reduce the risk of insider threats.
• Map your exposure: Your organization’s CISO should analyze your internal teams and map each employee’s likelihood of becoming a threat. This analysis shines a spotlight on potential risks and areas for improvement.
• Use threat modeling: Apply threat modeling at a large scale to better understand your threat landscape, including threat vectors related to malicious code or vulnerabilities. Identify the type of roles that might compromise a system and how they might access your assets.
• Set up strong authentication measures: Use multifactor authentication (MFA) and safe password practices to make it harder for attackers to steal credentials. Passwords should be complex and unique, and MFA helps prevent infiltrators from accessing your system even if they have user IDs and passwords.
• Prevent data exfiltration: Place access controls and monitor access to data to prevent lateral movements and protect your organization’s intellectual property.
• Eliminate idle accounts: Purge your directory of orphan and dormant accounts and continuously monitor for unused accounts and privileges. Ensure that non-active users, such as former employees, can no longer access the system or the organization’s data.
• Investigate anomalous behavior: Investigate any unusual activity in your organization’s LAN to identify misbehaving employees. Combined with behavior monitoring and analysis tools, you can efficiently identify and prevent insider threats.
• Conduct sentiment analysis: Perform sentiment analysis to determine the feelings and intentions of individuals. Regular analysis can help you identify employees under stress, experiencing financial troubles, or performing poorly, which may indicate potential malicious insiders.
• Implement insider threat detection tools: Use tools like Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), log management tools, User Behavior Analytics (UEBA), IT Management (ITM), and security automation to detect and prevent insider threats.
• Leverage security automation: Implement security automation to understand baseline network behavior and react efficiently to different situations.
• Utilize employee awareness training: Use security awareness training to teach employees how to spot likely insider threat actors and make them aware of behavioral risk indicators.
• Conduct regular audits and reviews: Regularly audit and review security policies, procedures, and technologies to ensure they are up-to-date and effective in preventing insider threats.

By implementing these solutions, organizations can improve their security posture to prevent insider threats and protect their critical information and systems.

As an industry-leading cybersecurity company, Proofpoint takes a people-centric approach to insider threat management and data loss prevention, enabling organizations to gain visibility, efficiency, and rapid response capabilities for mitigating the growing risks from insiders. Proofpoint offers several solutions to combat these insider threats:

Proofpoint Insider Threat Management (ITM) provides real-time, contextualized insights into user activity and behavior to detect and prevent insider threats. Key capabilities include:

• Visibility and prevention: ITM provides visibility into the “who, what, when, and where” of user actions, with timeline views and screen captures to aid investigations. It can also block users from exfiltrating data across channels like USB, web uploads, cloud sync, and print.
• Efficiency: ITM offers a centralized view to help security teams correlate alerts and manage investigations across endpoints, the web, cloud, and email. It includes workflows for better collaboration and exportable reports for HR, legal, and other stakeholders.
• Rapid time to value: ITM is a scalable, cloud-native solution that can be deployed quickly with a lightweight endpoint agent, providing flexible monitoring of both everyday and high-risk users.

Proofpoint Enterprise Data Loss Prevention (DLP) integrates with ITM to provide comprehensive protection against data loss from negligent, compromised, and malicious users. It can identify sensitive data, detect exfiltration attempts, and automate regulatory compliance.

Proofpoint Security Awareness Training helps transform employees into effective data defenders by proactively identifying potentially risky users and changing their behavior to ensure compliance.

To learn more about reinforcing your organization’s insider threat detection and prevention capabilities, contact Proofpoint.

[1] Verizon. “Data Breach Investigations Report”
[2] SANS. “Insider Threats and the Need for Fast and Directed Response”
[3] CSO Magazine. “U.S. State of Cybercrime Report”