Insider Threat Protection

SaaS security threats evolve rapidly, but many cybersecurity attacks still stem from human error. A malicious insider is an employee who steals or deletes data or damages the company’s reputation. The other kind of insider threat is a mistake – an honest employee who accidentally deletes or shares business-critical data.

Cloud SaaS environments are vulnerable to insider threats

The war on cybercrime has evolved to a new level, with many SaaS security threats stemming from human error. While malicious insiders are often considered a problem outside the organization, a malicious insider can also come from within the company’s own staff. A mistake that comes from an honest employee with good intentions — accidental deletion of or sharing of business-critical data — is one of the most detrimental forms of insider threat.

What is an insider threat? It’s any threat that comes from business workers. It might be a current or former employee who intentionally or by mistake exposes the company’s environment to cyber risk. With more and more employees working remotely, the risk of insider threats is often under-appreciated. Insider threats can devastate an organization quickly, but many businesses don’t realize this until it’s too late. Insider data breaches could cost billions and cause significant damage to your brand and bottom line. According to IBM’s Cost of Insider Threats: Global Report 2020, companies spend an average of USD 644,852 on each incident caused by insider threat because of the following:

1. Negligent or inadvertent employee or contractor
2. Criminal insider including employee or contractor malice,
3. Employee/user credential theft (a.k.a. imposter risk)

The biggest costs are not monetary. There are many intangible costs of a breach due to insider threats that can be overlooked, including the following.

• Theft or loss of mission-critical data or intellectual property
• Unauthorized access to sensitive data
• Impact of downtime on organizational productivity
• Damages to equipment and other assets
• Cost to detect and remediate systems and core business processes
• Legal and regulatory impact, including litigation defense cost and fines
• Lost confidence and trust among key stakeholders
• Deterioration of marketplace brand and reputation
• Operational disruption
• Change in leadership

The penalties and cost of data breach events will continue to grow for organizations and must be taken seriously. Regular SaaS data audits are the heart of a strong cybersecurity posture. They provide a clear view of the organization’s SaaS data that can be used to stop insider threats before they can cause any damage.

A number of SaaS tools help SecOps and IT teams with inside threat detection. They provide monitoring of SaaS environment and help identify unauthorized access, sensitive information sharing, and data theft. Many of these applications also help set security policies to enhance insider threat prevention.

SpinOne is a cybersecurity solution that detects anomalous activities, SaaS data misuse activities, and other cybersecurity risks across your cloud data environment. SpinOne helps protect against insider threats and data misuse by continuously monitoring your enterprise’s cloud data.

“Negligent employees or contractors were the root cause of 2,962 of the 4,716 incidents reported.”

— Cost of Insider Threats, by IBM Security