Insider Threats: Why Employees Can Be More Dangerous Than Hackers
In most cyber-attack scenarios, we think of attackers as external hackers trying to penetrate a company’s systems. However, an equally dangerous threat is one that comes from within — from the organization’s employees themselves. Insider threats include unauthorized access, data leaks, sabotage, and even unintentional errors that can cause serious damage to a business.
According to research, more than 25% of all data breaches involve insiders. These threats are harder to detect because the actions of employees are often perceived as legitimate. In the era of digital transformation, understanding and managing insider threats is becoming an important component of a cybersecurity strategy.
What are insider threats? An insider threat occurs when a person with access to a company’s resources intentionally or accidentally takes actions that threaten the security of the organization. Employees, contractors, and even former employees can be a source of threat.
Types of Insider Threats:
Malicious Insiders: Employees who knowingly steal data or sabotage systems.
Accidental Insiders: Those who unintentionally leak data, such as through phishing attacks or misuse of corporate resources.
Compromised Insiders: Employees whose credentials have been stolen and are used by attackers to access systems.
Why are insiders more dangerous than external hackers? Direct Access to Data Employees already have access to systems and information, making their actions harder to detect. Hackers need time and resources to penetrate, while insiders are already inside.
Bypassing Standard Security Measures Insiders can use legitimate accounts and privileges to access critical information. This allows them to operate undetected.
Difficult to Detect Insiders often behave in an undetected manner as they go about their normal business. Threat detection requires analyzing behavioral patterns, which is difficult without the right technology.
Hard to predict motives Insiders may act out of revenge, greed, or even carelessness. These factors are harder to predict and prevent than standard external threats.
Examples of insider threats - Data theft by a former employee: In 2019, a former Tesla employee downloaded confidential data about the manufacturing process and shared it with competitors. The leak could have cost billions of dollars in damages if the security team had not responded quickly.
Erroneous file sharing: In 2021, an employee of a major financial institution accidentally sent client data to the wrong email address. The incident led to a loss of trust from clients and fines from regulators.
Sabotage of IT systems: At one of the US energy companies, an employee on the verge of dismissal deleted critical data and disabled systems, which led to multimillion-dollar losses.
How to protect against insider threats?
- Limit access privileges
Employees should have access to the minimum necessary to perform their tasks. The principle of "least privilege" helps prevent unauthorized use of data.
- Monitor user activity
User Behavior Analytics (UBA) systems can detect suspicious behavior, such as downloading large amounts of data or attempts to access unauthorized resources.
- Train employees
Regular training helps prevent accidental data leaks. Employees should be aware of cyber threats, such as phishing, and how to use corporate systems safely.
- Manage access after termination
It is necessary to immediately block the accounts of employees leaving the company to prevent them from being used for data theft or sabotage.
- Implementation of DLP (Data Loss Prevention) systems
These systems monitor and control the movement of data, preventing its leakage through email, cloud services or external devices.
Lessons for business Insider threats require special attention, as they are more difficult to predict and often underestimated. Companies should implement not only technical protection measures, but also create a security culture where every employee understands the importance of data protection.
Investments in monitoring technologies and staff training can significantly reduce the likelihood of incidents. At the same time, it is important to understand that an insider threat is not only a security issue, but also a matter of trust between the company and its employees.
Conclusion Insider threats are a hidden but extremely serious problem for businesses. They can cause more harm than external attacks, since employee actions are more difficult to detect. In an era of growing digital risks, companies must build their security strategies taking into account all aspects, including the human factor. Only a comprehensive approach that combines technology, access policy and a culture of trust