Combating Insider Threats

Customer Experience    | May 12, 2017

When Edward Snowden leaked NSA’s classified documents of their surveillance program, it sent a message out and loud to companies; if an employee can steal sensitive documents from the NSA, an employee can do that with anyone.  The authorized access of employees to a company’s confidential data poses a self-evident risk to its cyber & financial security because such data can be used to exploit the company.

The motivation behind such treasons? It could range from a fraudulent opportunity dangled in front of an employee to resentment harbored by them which foments into action. It may be because of deeply held morals or beliefs of an employee or in fact, the financial gain. Access to the company’s best kept secrets and inside knowledge of its security weaknesses, always gives the culprits an upper-hand.

Intentional theft isn’t the only insider threat.

Imagine your company, now imagine an employee in your company sending a confidential document to a customer. Maybe he is in a rush, or he is groggy or he is sending the email before his caffeine kicks in and he sends the confidential document without encrypting it. The hacker is waiting at the end-point to find a vulnerability, and guess what, your employee of the month just handed your company’s security to him on a silver platter. In 2015 over 116 billion business messages were sent a day. That’s 116 billion chances for sensitive information to be intercepted – either with malicious intent or accidentally.

The amount of data which circulates within business networks everyday can be staggering and much of it is deemed to be confidential. Companies in highly regulated industries hold large amounts of confidential data- information which includes biometrics, health records, financial transactions & inventory tracking. Simply the chance of getting hands on a wealth of highly confidential info in a single hit, makes highly regulated industries a top target.

Since many companies are favoring firewalls and server security, and shying away from email encryption- they are leaving a huge loophole for message interception and are putting information at risk. Policy-based email encryption is a key to combating cybercriminals who are dedicating even more effort to breaching corporate email data.

Email encryption solutions, which can be configured to recognize and encrypt specified email based on a company’s preset policies, provides a user-friendly experience for employees and peace of mind for IT management. But will your workforce reliably use it? Case after case has shown us that companies and even entire industries have neglected to ask the question.

If email security solutions – or any other technologies for that matter – are too complicated, employees will almost certainly find easier means to complete a task. In this scenario, security is the ball that is dropped. Insider threats continue to keep senior business leaders awake at night. A recent PwC report in the US found that 32 per cent of respondents consider insider threats to be costlier and more damaging than external incidents.

Encryption is crucial to ensuring that this confidential information remains private and secure – while emails are in transit and at rest. If you would like to find out more about how email encryption can help your business and your employees protect sensitive data, the report listed below may be of interest.