However, recently, insider threats have been among the most important cybersecurity risks that organizations are now facing. Insider threat mitigation has become even more critical as working remotely and remote working models become increasingly widespread.
As per recent surveys, insider threats are the top causes of security incidents and data breaches. According to the 2023 Cost of Insider Risks Global Report by the Ponemon Institute, the average annual cost of insider risks has increased to $16.2 million per organization, marking a 40% rise over the past four years. This risk will continue to grow as more and more employees work from home or other locations.
In this article, you can read more about how remote work is enabling the growing challenge of insider threats, what the most common types of threats are, the potential impacts and what your organization can do to detect and mitigate the 'insider threat risk' across the distributed work environment.
The Rising Threat of Insider Attacks
Recent data indicates that insider threats are on the rise:
- 83% of organizations reporting at least one insider attack in 2024 (SecurityIntelligence)
- 76% of organizations feel vulnerable to insider attacks, up from 66% in 2019 (Cybersecurity Insiders)
Insider incidents become more likely as more people work remotely. More than one-third of Americans who have a job allowing them to work remotely from home report opting to do so 100% of the time, based on Pew Research Centers' data.
How Remote Work Enables Insider Threats
There are a few reasons why remote work amplifies risks related to malicious, compromised, or negligent insiders:
Increased Use of BYOD and Personal Tools
When it comes to remote work, employees usually work with personal devices and unmanaged apps. They are tools that sit outside of the corporate network and policy, which means that it's easier for threat actors to then gain access and exfiltrate some very sensitive data.
Decentralized Data & Systems
Data and access become more distributed as on-prem hardware moves to the cloud. Without centralized control and visibility of resources, it becomes much harder to ensure that access and activity are controlled.
Isolation & Loss of Organizational Culture
Working from home can cause employees to feel isolated and disengaged from company culture. This lack of connection increases the risk of insider incidents stemming from negligence or even retaliation.
Increased Digital Collaboration
Digital collaboration tools are the core of remote work. More data sharing means more opportunities for abuses of entitlements and privileges.
Password Fatigue
Remote access to many systems has expanded the number of passwords employees can remember. A weak password and the reuse of the password amplify vulnerability to credential-based attacks.
The Most Common Types of Insider Threats
Insider threats generally fall into three broad categories:
Malicious Insiders
These are trusted employees, contractors, or partners who intentionally steal data, sabotage systems, or harm the organization. This could include fraud, IP theft, espionage, or even extortion.
Compromised Credentials & Accounts
External attacks often rely on compromised insider credentials and accounts to enable lateral movement and access sensitive systems. Phishing, malware infections, password theft, and brute force attacks can all lead to compromised credentials.
Negligent Insiders
Accidental exposure of data and systems can happen even to well-intentioned employees. An example of negligent insider threats is sending data to the wrong recipients, misconfiguring cloud storage, losing devices and violating policies.
Over 60% of insider incidents result from employee carelessness, not malicious actions. As such, negligence represents the most likely --- and often overlooked --- insider threat vector.
Potential Impacts of Insider Threats
The consequences of insider attacks can be severe, including:
- Loss or theft of intellectual property, trade secrets, and strategic plans
- Leaks of customer, partner or employee personal information
- System sabotage, data destruction or manipulation
- Reputational damages, loss of customer trust and brand value
- Business disruption ranging from a few hours to several weeks
- Financial losses associated with recovery costs, legal liabilities and regulatory fines
According to IBM's Cost of Insider Threats report, the average cost of insider threat incidents has risen by 31% since 2020 to $4.58 million. However, some estimates place the total potential loss from IP and trade secrets at over $500 billion annually.
For fast-growing startups and smaller businesses, insider incidents can completely derail operations and viability. One case of IP theft or data leakage can essentially sink an early-stage company.
Best Practices for Mitigating Insider Threat Risk
Protecting against insider threats across today's distributed work landscape requires a multifaceted approach focused on prevention, detection, and response:
1. Establish Strong and Enforced Data Policies
- Document clear, acceptable use policies for devices, data access, storage and collaboration
- Mandate cybersecurity and data privacy training for all employees and contractors
- Ensure confidential data is properly marked, secured and only accessible to those who need it
2. Implement Least Privilege Controls
- Provision access rights based on strict need-to-know and job functions
- Institute re-certification processes to regularly review and validate access
- Immediately revoke access for departing employees or role changes
3. Secure Endpoints, Accounts & Credentials
- Require strong passwords and multi-factor authentication everywhere possible
- Deploy endpoint detection & response (EDR) to analyze threats on devices
- Monitor authentication events and credential usage patterns for anomalies
4. Log, Monitor & Analyze Access Attempts
- Aggregate event data from cloud apps, endpoints and identity systems into SIEM
- Correlate behavioral baselines to better understand typical vs. risky activity
- Setup alerts for potential compromise indicators based on machine learning
5. Encourage Transparent Communication
- Maintain open dialogue with remote employees to prevent detachment
- Create anonymous reporting channels for questionable activities
- Demonstrate that people are the last line of defense, not the weakest link
In today's complex remote work environment, there is no longer a solution to rely only on prevention. The priority is to build intelligent controls for early threat detection with processes for investigation and implementation of a quick response.
Key Insider Threat Detection & Response Capabilities
These organizations can now monitor access patterns and keep an eye on activity on endpoints and behavioral indicators on cloud and on-premises as advanced technologies allow.
Core technical capabilities needed include:
- Unified visibility and analytics into access, activity and file behaviors across cloud apps, endpoints and on-prem systems
- Advanced machine learning algorithms tailored to detect insider threat indicators
- Unsupervised entity behavior analytics (UEBA) to expose risky users and the actions performed
- Context and recommended actions for efficient response for the prioritized alerts.
- Native integrations with popular digital workplace platforms like Office 365 and Google Workspace
- Temporary access suspension in case of risky activity detection
- Detailed activity audit trails for faster incident investigation
- User-centric monitoring to track activities across devices and systems
Leading insider threat solutions also emphasize usability for streamlined deployment and lower total cost of ownership. Key usability principles include:
- Fast time-to-value with pre-built detections and threat models
- Intuitive graphical interfaces requiring less specialized security expertise
- Prioritized risk scores and incidents to focus response efforts
- Step-by-step investigation workflows to uncover risk extent
- Easy tailoring of detection algorithms and models
- Flexible deployment options, including cloud, on-prem or hybrid
An Ounce of Prevention...
While no solution will eliminate insider threats completely, taking steps to detect risky user activity early and respond quickly can greatly reduce potential damages.
With distributed work and access here to stay, organizations need an insider threat program capable of scaling across elastic work environments while delivering the visibility, context and automation to enable security teams of any size.
Prioritizing both prevention and detection while creating a culture of security awareness ultimately gives organizations the best chance to stay ahead of growing insider threats.