How can you prevent insider threats and human errors in security awareness?

Security Awareness on its own does little to prevent an insider threat where the intent is malicious. However, true insider threats are an exception. Most attacks on a company due to the behavior of an employee are unintended. In these situations, continuous learning about the risks may work. Even more effective is when the same information is embedded into their daily practice and then further supported by a culture and leadership that incentivizes continued vigilance and shift of behavior long-term.

By cultivating a stakeholder relationship with HR, an effective security awareness program will be able to identify and monitor potential insider threats. HR can provide detailed reports on employees that have recently been put on personal improvement plans (PIP) who may be at higher risk of becoming an insider threat willing to compromise company information for financial gain.

They are one of the most frequent and often underestimated threats by organizations and the most difficult to manage. Certainly, a set of policies, background checks, and technical tools can be helpful, which must be guided by a generic approach. Boyd's OODA Loop, which stands for "Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act," is very useful. Focusing on the first point, we need to observe and see what's going on and put enough technical countermeasures so that when there's something suspicious, enough noise is made to observe what's happening.

The insider threat detection system proactively identifies unusual activity that could indicate unauthorized activity by an insider 🌐 Accessing the network, systems, and assets at unusual times, which could indicate misuse of those resources or compromise of a user's credentials 🌐 Unexpected and unexplained spikes in network traffic, which could be a sign that a user is copying or downloading data 🌐 Requesting access permissions to applications, data, or documents that are not actually required for the user's role 🌐 Accessing combinations of documents or data that, taken together, could indicate malicious activity 🌐 Using personal devices such as laptops, mobile phones, and USB drives without approval from the IT team

I personally look at insider threats like any other threat. Whether someone's account was compromised and that person is being impersonated, or that person is an actual disgruntled internal threat actor really doesn't make a difference, the impact of the damage is the same. That's why we talk about limiting access and power of individual accounts and things like separating high-power or admin accounts into different identifies (e.g., different Okta, security keys, etc), because it significantly limits what can happen with any one account. The most effective and low cost thing you can do is identify the risky activities and then log those types of actions and have your SOC set up rules or look for outliers or unusual usage patterns.

Many companies try to do one type of training for everyone, and that leads to general training that doesn't really impact people to make a change. Consider doing a department threat model on high-risk departments (such as Finance, HR, IT, and developers with production access), and then tune your training to each of those. I'm pretty sure your developers couldn't care less about wire transfer scams, but that's very actionable for your Finance department. The key is to make training interesting, relatable, and actionable for specific groups of people. You also need to create a partnership with the senior leaders of those orgs so they can amplify your messaging!

Educating members of the insider threat team is of the utmost importance. A team is only effective when every member understands how an insider threat team functions, the types of behavior to watch for, information sharing amongst team members, how to detect, deter, and mitigate, and how their respective roles give the rest of the group insight when evaluating a potential concern. People are often afraid to share information, which is counter-effective and defeats the purpose. Standard yearly training, supplemental training on behaviors and reportable incidents, simulations, and trial runs are efficient and often identify weaknesses within the team and when one department hesitates to share critical information with another.

Effective training is key to reducing human errors that can compromise security. Engaging and relevant security training, as noted by the National Cyber Security Centre, can lower phishing success rates by 80%. Using varied methods such as e-learning and simulations ensures employees remain vigilant. Rewarding positive security behaviors creates a culture of continuous improvement. What innovative training methods have you implemented to enhance employee engagement in security awareness?

When designing security awareness programs, it's important to keep in mind you can't completely eliminate all human error because that imperfection is part of what makes us human. Security awareness should focus on improving overall security behavior by preparing employees to identify and report security threats through targeted messaging and training. An effective security awareness program also creates a healthy security culture that doesn't penalize employees when they happen to make mistakes during the learning process.

High employee satisfaction and a strong employee identification with the company is the best protection against insider threats. Employees are at the forefront of security. Make sure they follow good hygiene practices, such as using strong passwords, only connecting to secure Wi-Fi networks and being on the lookout for phishing at all times - on all their devices. Ensure that employees are aware of the dynamic threat landscape through comprehensive and regular security awareness training and that they take the necessary steps to protect themselves and the company from insider threats and other cyber risks.

I always suggest people take a practical approach to security control and enforcement. Security needs to be a partner to the business, not an interference mechanism. You need a good security team that can integrate themselves into the organization and partner with the organization to identify where to place security controls and to what level of enforcement. Remember, enforcement means interference, and interference leads to lower productivity and happiness. There's a tradeoff with these things, and the balance is delicate!

Implementing security controls tailored to your organization's needs is vital. Following the principle of least privilege limits exposure to insider threats and human errors. Regular updates and audits of security measures, as recommended by NIST, can significantly enhance your security posture. By ensuring that all staff understand their access levels, you build a safer working environment. How do you prioritize and communicate the importance of security controls among your team?

I think it's not enough to collaborate or inform, the key word is 'partnership'. It's not an us and them when it comes to security and the rest of the company, it's just 'us'! Having goals and policies is great, but they aren't going to work if you can't adjust them to the realities of your organization.

Open communication with stakeholders enhances security awareness and trust. Engaging customers and partners in security initiatives can foster collaboration and share valuable insights. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, organizations that prioritize stakeholder engagement see reduced security risks. Sharing lessons learned from incidents promotes transparency and accountability. What strategies do you use to keep stakeholders informed about security practices?

Having plans is great, the most important thing you can do is practice them! Make sure you run table-top exercises around various types of breach and recovery scenarios. You'll likely find that there's ambiguity and misunderstanding of ownership and responsibility when you do this, and it'll help clarify those for when you actually need them!

A proactive incident response strategy is essential for minimizing damage from security breaches. Having a robust SIRP, as emphasized by the SANS Institute, ensures that roles and procedures are clear during crises. Training a dedicated SIRT to handle incidents not only enhances preparedness but also reduces recovery time. Regularly updating recovery plans based on past incidents can further strengthen your organization's resilience. How often do you conduct incident response drills to ensure your team is ready for real threats?

Sharing real-world examples of how your organization effectively mitigated insider threats can reinforce the importance of these strategies. For instance, after implementing regular training and monitoring, a leading tech firm reduced insider incidents by 40%. Highlighting these successes encourages others to adopt similar practices. What success stories can you share that illustrate the effectiveness of insider threat prevention strategies in your organization?

In my opinion data can reveal many things and can be instrumental in preventing insider threats. Data Required- Frequency of movement of each individual in all locations, Facial expressions, Eyeball movements Analysis Required- Change detection and Pattern analysis with respect to movement, Behavioural Analysis of data generated through FRS and Forensic Analysis of eyeball.movents on asking relevant questions. Integration of all three will definitely lead to any anomaly if it exists and can be very effective in preventing any breach or insider threats. That's why security automation is going to be the backbone of all organizations and it's not a choice but a necessity.

Really, you can't prevent an insider threat. You might be able to deter it, or minimise it. Awareness training can highlight the risk to people (i.e. do this and you'll probably go to jail), but the fact is when someone is given big dollars to plug in a malicious USB key, or they take photos of your IP, it's incredibly hard to stop! What it comes down to is every company assessing it's crown jewels, determining how an insider might use their privilege to take this information, and applying appropriate security controls.

Malicious insider threats are planned events that usually involve a disgruntled or compromised current or former employee. That employee is targeting the company either for personal gain or revenge. Such incidents are often linked to other criminal or illegal activities, such as fraud, espionage, or theft of data or intellectual property. Negligent insider threats are the result of human error, carelessness, or manipulation. Because no one is acting with malicious intent in these threats, virtually any user can be a negligent insider if they inadvertently share sensitive data, use weak passwords, lose a device, fail to secure an endpoint, or fall victim to a social engineering attack.