IT professionals are looking to take a joined up approach of better user education and technology solutions to mitigate the insider threat.
According to 500 IT Professionals, the continual high profile internal security breaches are prompting a surge in preventative measures against insider threat. 43% of organizations have now an insider threat program in place and of those that don’t – 69% are planning to put one in place this year.
But what does this Insider Threat program look like?
The top answer on what that insider threat program actually entails, was specific technology solutions, with two thirds citing this to be a part of their planned or existing insider threat programs.
Technology forms an excellent backbone to any strategy for mitigating insider threat with a high percentage of organizations now in agreement.
Layered Security
When it comes to ‘which’ technology solutions, IT Professionals know there is no silver bullet.
Whether your looking to help secure access to company resources, protect from outside attacks or protects users from their own careless behavior, the layered approach is more relevant than ever. Security is still, and will continue to be, built in layers to provide the best protection.
The responsibility lies with organizations to determine their key assets, identify where vulnerabilities lie and design security that will best protect them from attack and detect any breach.
Institute InfoSec Reading Room. 2013. Layered Security: Why it works.
Technology is also not likely to be effective in isolation.
A major part of addressing insider threat is building awareness of the problem, and engaging with users to grow their education. This was reflected in the research, with 57% of IT professionals’ detailing that their insider threat programs will include organisation-wide training — demonstrating that a joined-up approach is essential for internal security.
Improving user security awareness
When asked what methods they expected to be used more to grow user awareness, the top result was – perhaps surprisingly for some people – stronger user restrictions.
So how do stronger user restrictions improve user security awareness?
One of the key benefits of implementing stronger user restrictions is it puts security front of mind for users.
While improved user education is a must, IT pros are recognizing that users are human, flawed, and will always act outside the boundaries of policy (and sometimes common sense).
Despite improved awareness, users are still the victims of social engineering and careless in their behavior. It’s for this reason that stronger user restrictions was chosen as the method most expected to be used more to address user security awareness.
The second top result was also a technology-driven approach, with 53% expecting user alerts which are triggered by specific actions to be a key method for IT professionals to grow awareness of security issues. Using technology to help educate and disseminate good behavior through alerts and notifications also helps keep security front of mind for all users.
The future of addressing insider threat
To find out more download the full report: User Security in 2015. The Future of addressing Insider Threat
A research report into the opinions and near-future plans of 500 IT decision makers in regards to mitigating the insider threat.
Insider Threats on a Windows Network
IS Decisions software offers organizations proven and effective solutions that help support any ‘zero trust’ initiative to protect a Windows network against the insider threat. Organizations that are using UserLock & FileAudit as part of a wider insider threat program help reduce the risk of security breaches from their employees and extended enterprise.
