What are Top Potential Insider Threat Indicators?

What Are Insider Threat Indicators?

Insider threat indicators are the signs that an organization must look out for that suggest that malicious activity is taking place within their environment. Such indicators may include excessive logging onto a system, or searching for sensitive information that is outside of their work requirements. Additionally, changes in an individual’s behavior, such as isolation from colleagues, sudden financial stress, or other personal issues, can also indicate a potential insider threat. Organizations must continuously monitor their systems and user behavior to quickly identify potential insider threats.

Possible Motives of Insider Attackers

Below are the most common motives behind insider threats:

Financial Gain

One of the most common motives for insider threats is financial gain. Employees may engage in fraudulent activities such as embezzlement, theft, or unauthorized trading to benefit financially. They might exploit their knowledge of the organization’s financial systems, access sensitive data, or manipulate financial transactions for personal enrichment.

Revenge or Resentment

Disgruntled employees may seek revenge or express resentment towards their organization, colleagues, or superiors. Motivated by personal grievances, such as perceived mistreatment, termination, or dissatisfaction, they may intentionally sabotage systems, delete critical data, or disrupt operations to cause harm.

Espionage or Intellectual Property Theft

Some insiders may be driven by espionage or the desire to steal intellectual property. They may have affiliations with competitors, foreign governments, or other malicious entities. These individuals may try to gain unauthorized access to confidential information, trade secrets, or research and development data to sell or use for personal or external gains.

Ideology or Activism

In certain cases, insiders may have ideological or activist motives. They may misuse their access to disrupt operations, leak sensitive information to the public, or deface websites as a form of protest against their organization’s practices, policies, or industry. These individuals may act out of a sense of moral conviction or a desire for social or political change.

Carelessness or Negligence

Not all insider threats are intentional or malicious. Some incidents occur due to carelessness, negligence, or lack of awareness among employees. Inadvertently, they may fall victim to phishing attacks, accidentally disclose sensitive information, or fail to follow security protocols, leading to data breaches or system vulnerabilities.

Top Insider Threat Indicators

Below are some of the most common indicators of insider threats:

1. Unusual Network Activity

Unusual network activity is a common indicator of an insider threat. An employee who is preparing to steal data or engage in other malicious activities may access resources that he or she has never used before or access files that are out of his or her usual working hours. Monitoring network activity can help organizations detect such behavior.

2. Accessing Unauthorized Information

Insiders with malicious intent may try to access information that they are not authorized to view or download. This could be sensitive/confidential data or proprietary information, such as intellectual property. Organizations must monitor such activities closely, and if detected, take swift action to prevent data theft.

3. Changes in Work Habits

A change in work habits can be a sign of an insider threat. An employee who is typically punctual, but suddenly starts arriving late or leaving early might be planning a data breach. Similarly, an employee who suddenly stops showing up for meetings or ceases collaborating with co-workers and supervisors could be a cause for concern.

4. High Level of Access Privileges

Another red flag is individuals who have high-level access privileges within the organization. Not only does this increase the chances of data theft, but it also increases the severity of the risk. Organizations should monitor and limit access privileges to reduce the likelihood of insider wrongdoing.

5. Active Job Search

An insider who is actively seeking new employment may be planning to steal organizational data or intellectual property before departing. Without causing any privacy violations, organizations should keep an eye out for employees actively seeking employment elsewhere.

6. Recent Security Violations

Employees who have recently been disciplined for security violations are also much more likely to commit malicious activities or attempt to steal information. Organizations must monitor these employees to mitigate the potential risk of future security violations.

7. Financial Difficulties

Insiders who are experiencing financial difficulties are more likely to steal data to sell to third parties or commit fraudulent activities. Organizations should look out for behavior that may indicate that an employee is experiencing financial difficulties, without violating their privacy.

8. Use of Unauthorized Software

When employees download and use software without proper authorization, they are breaking company policies and potentially compromising the security of the organization. This could include malware or other malicious software that could infect the company’s network, or software that is not secure and could allow for unauthorized access to sensitive information.

How Lepide Helps in Detecting and Preventing Insider Threats

The Lepide Data Security platform monitors access to your privileged accounts and sensitive information, in real-time. Below are some of the ways our software can offer protection against insider threats:

Aggregating Event Data from Multiple On-premises and Cloud Platforms: Our platform collects event data from a variety of on-premises and cloud platforms such as Office 365, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and G Suite.

User-Friendly Dashboard and Instant Notifications: With a simple dashboard, you can be immediately alerted of any abnormal activity associated with your sensitive data, making it easy to detect and respond to insider threats.

Integrated Data Classification Feature: Our integrated data classification feature will thoroughly scan your repositories for sensitive data and classify it accordingly.

Granting the Right Access Controls: Knowing the location of sensitive data enables you to grant authorized personnel the right access controls.

Easily Generate Reports for Compliance: Generate reports that provide a summary of all incidents related to your sensitive data. These reports can be shared with authorities to demonstrate compliance.

Using Machine Learning Models to Detect Anomalies: Our software uses machine learning models to establish a baseline that can be used detect anomalies in user activity.

Detecting Events That Match a Pre-defined Threshold Condition: Our platform promptly identifies and responds to events that match pre-defined threshold conditions, such as when multiple files are encrypted or renamed, or logon attempts fail, within given time-frame.

Conclusion

Insider threats tend to be more dangerous that other security threats because they have privileged access to critical organizational information. Therefore, organizations must be vigilant in monitoring employee activities, including computer usage patterns to detect any signs of malicious intent. By keeping a close eye on the insider threat indicators listed above, organizations can thwart insider attacks before they cause significant harm.

If you’d like to see how the Lepide Data Security Platform can help you detect and respond to insider threats, schedule a demo with one of our engineers.