Insiders have always been a security risk, but it's not just the malicious ones you need to keep an eye on.
The trusted insider has always been a security risk - whether an executive with access to sensitive information or an administrator on an enterprise network.
According to a recent report from the Ponemon Institute, 56 per cent of security practitioners surveyed said that company insiders are the primary cause of security breaches and 72 per cent were not confident they could control employee access to sensitive information.
Many are aware of the threat posed by malicious insiders. But it is not only the malicious you need to worry about – don’t underestimate the threats posed by human error and good intentions. According to IBM, human error was found to be a contributing factor in more than 95 per cent of incidents investigated. The most common problems included system misconfiguration, poor patch management, using default settings and weak passwords, lost devices, and sending sensitive data to the wrong e-mail address. This data is now two years old, but these examples of errors are still typical today.
