6 Ways Organizations Can Prevent Insider Threats

According to Verizon’s 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, 19% of the threats organizations face are internal. When organizations don’t take the necessary steps to prevent internal misuse of credentials and human errors, their chances of suffering an insider threat are greater. A few ways organizations can prevent insider threats are by using threat modeling, implementing the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP), using strict access controls and deleting accounts when employees leave.

Continue reading to learn insider threat prevention tips and how a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution can help mitigate the risk of insider threats.

What is an insider threat?

An insider threat is when an insider uses their privileges to cause intentional or unintentional harm to an organization. An insider attack is not always the result of malicious intent. The best way to understand insider threats is to understand the different types of insiders.

• Malicious insiders: Malicious insiders are employees who use their privileges and knowledge of the organization to cause intentional harm. An example of this would be an employee intentionally leaking sensitive information they have access to.
• Negligent insiders: Negligent insiders are employees who cause unintentional harm to an organization. These employees may make a human error or a poor judgment call that exposes sensitive information.
• Outsiders with insider access: Outsiders with insider access are cybercriminals who have made it into an organization’s network or building and use that to their advantage to cause harm to the organization. These types of insiders are typically referred to as moles.

How insider threats happen

Some of the most common ways insider threats happen are through social engineering attacks, poor credential management and employees being granted excessive privileges within an organization.

Social engineering attacks

Social engineering attacks are when cybercriminals use psychological manipulation to convince victims to reveal sensitive information or take actions that will cause harm to an organization. An example of this would be an employee receiving a phishing email that contains a malicious link, clicking on it and then entering their login credentials. When the employee enters their login credentials on the phishing website, the cybercriminal can harvest that information and then use it to log in to the employee’s actual account. 

Poor credential management

Poor credential management at an organization happens when employees are improperly storing and sharing login credentials with team members. Some examples of improperly storing and sharing credentials include keeping them in shared spreadsheets and sending login credentials through work messaging apps like Slack and Teams. Insecurely storing and sharing credentials places organizations at risk of insider attacks because it is impossible to know which employees have access to certain accounts and when they’re accessing them. 

Employees being granted excessive privileges

An employee at an organization should only have access to the data, accounts and systems they need to do their jobs, not more and not less. When employees are granted more privileges than they need, it increases the organization’s attack surface and the likelihood of suffering an insider attack due to misuse, negligence or malicious activity. 

6 insider threat prevention tips

Here are six insider threat prevention tips that can help keep your organization safe from insider threats. 

1. Use threat modeling to understand your organization’s security posture

Threat modeling helps organizations identify threats and risks so they can better protect themselves. There are several threat modeling frameworks organizations can choose from to meet their specific needs and objectives. Before choosing a threat modeling framework, organizations need to consider the following:

• The threats and risks that similar companies in their industry face
• The size of their organization
• Resources that are available to them (this includes financial resources)

Once an organization decides on a threat modeling framework, they can begin to analyze what threats they need protection from most critically and implement steps to mitigate those threats.

2. Implement and follow the principle of least privilege

The principle of least privilege is a cybersecurity concept that states employees should only be given the network access they need to do their job and that’s all. The best way to implement PoLP is by investing in a privileged access management solution. PAM solutions give organizations full visibility, security, control and reporting for every privileged user within their organization to help mitigate the risk of insider attacks. 

3. Ensure strong authentication for every account and system

Every account and system in an organization should be secured with strong passwords and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Enforcing MFA can be the difference in keeping those systems and accounts secure, even if an inside or outside threat actor knows the username and password. According to a Microsoft report, MFA blocks over 99.9% of account compromise attacks, making it one of the most important measures to secure accounts.  

4. Delete or update accounts when employees leave

Having a proper offboarding process can keep an organization protected from disgruntled former employees. One of the most important aspects of an offboarding process is making sure that the former employee will no longer be able to access company data. When an employee leaves a company, their account credentials should be updated immediately or completely deleted to avoid the possibility of the former employee being able to access sensitive company information and intellectual property. No former employee accounts should ever be left idle. 

5. Investigate unusual activity

An organization should have complete visibility into all unusual activity that is happening within its network. A PAM solution provides organizations with a way to monitor and record access to privileged accounts, systems and data. Without a way to monitor unusual activity, organizations may not realize the misuse or leakage of sensitive information until it’s too late. 

6. Train employees to spot social engineering attempts

Your employees can be your weakest link if they’re not trained to spot social engineering attempts like phishing. Have your organization implement a monthly training session on what social engineering scams are and how to spot them. One training method your organization can implement is simulated phishing tests, where employees are sent simulated phishing emails. If an employee fails a simulated phishing test, assign them more training until they can learn to better spot them on their own.

How privileged access management helps prevent insider threats

Privileged access management solutions like KeeperPAM™ can help organizations mitigate insider threats by enabling full visibility, security, control and reporting over every privileged user. KeeperPAM combines three integral products, Enterprise Password Management (EPM), Keeper Secrets Management (KSM) and Keeper Connection Management (KCM) into one zero-trust and zero-knowledge platform to help organizations reduce their attack surface and mitigate the risks of insider threats. 

Ready to protect your organization from cyber threats? Request a demo of KeeperPAM today.