In today’s digital age, finding the perfect fit for your business can be quite a challenge. As employers, our success relies on the people we bring on board—their potential, contributions, and how well they align with our organization. It’s essential to know if the individuals we hire are not only the right fit but also whether they pose any insider threats or risks to our company’s security. To ensure the safety of your company and mitigate these risks, it’s crucial to verify individuals and their backgrounds thoroughly before making hiring decisions.
That’s where ASLI RI’s verification system comes in, providing you with accurate and seamless verification solutions. In this article, we will dive deeper into the topic of insider threats and how our verification system can greatly benefit your business. Keep reading to discover more!
What does insider threat mean?
According to a publication by CISA GOV, insider threat is the potential for an insider to use their authorized access or understanding of an organization to harm that organization. Another definition by NIST is the threat that an insider will use her/his authorized access, wittingly or unwittingly to harm the security of organizational operations and assets, individuals, other organizations, and the Nation, including damage through espionage, terrorism, unauthorized disclosure of national security information, or through the loss or degradation of organizational resources or capabilities. These people are the ones that compromise information security by disclosing sensitive information to external parties intentionally or unintentionally. If they do it willfully, they will receive a large sum of money for their deeds in exchange. This practice is illegal and has been causing immense losses to the company, its customer, and its partner in the long run, as it will bring new problems to them.
An article by Harvard Business Review states that an information security compromise can cause several negative consequences like:
- A decrease in stock price
- Increased cost of doing business such as lost revenues, business downtime, remediation, legal fees, and audit fees.
- Credit-rating downgrade which impacts the company’s ability and cost to secure financing.
Other than that, it also possesses many negative consequences like ruined business reputation, compromised customer sensitive information, loss of customer trust, disclosure of trade secrets.
How is information security compromised?
There are ways people can compromise information security, whether or not they are doing it intentionally:
- Inadvertent data breach/leak: Careless users can inadvertently cause data breaches, putting sensitive information at risk. Their actions, whether through negligent sharing of login credentials, clicking on suspicious links, or mishandling confidential data, can lead to unintended breaches. For example, mistakenly sending sensitive information to the wrong recipient or leaving sensitive documents unattended in an open space are examples of inadvertent disclosure.
- Negligent data breach: User handling data carelessly or ignoring existing regulations regarding data or information security that leads to a data leak. This condition is sometimes undetected and hard to spot. But the fraudsters that tirelessly search for leakage benefit from it by breaching the system security. There are many negligent data breach cases in Indonesia, such as one of the Indonesian biggest Sharia fintech companies reportedly experiencing data breaches. Another example is the state-owned telecom firm. Although still unclear whether the data is breached and exposed to the internet or not, it’s essential to take careful measures to prevent such incidents.
- Malicious data breach: This term refers to a deliberate and unauthorized intrusion into a computer system, network, or database which has been leaked or intentionally leaked by an insider before the breach.
What are the motivations?
Taken from Insider Attacks Industry Survey by Haystax Technology in 2017, individuals have various motivations for intentionally leaking sensitive information, with four key factors identified: monetizing sensitive information, fraud, sabotage, and espionage.
- Monetizing sensitive information involves individuals seeking financial gain by selling or exploiting valuable data. This motivation is often driven by the potential profits that can be obtained through illegal activities such as identity theft, insider trading, or selling confidential business information.
- Fraud refers to the deliberate act of deceiving others for personal gain. Individuals may leak sensitive information to perpetrate scams, commit insurance fraud, or engage in other fraudulent activities that exploit the compromised data.
- Sabotage entails individuals intentionally leaking sensitive information with the intention of causing harm to a person, organization, or system. This motivation can arise from personal grievances, disputes, or a desire to disrupt operations and create chaos.
- Espionage involves individuals leaking sensitive information to gain a strategic advantage or intelligence for personal or organizational purposes. This motivation is commonly associated with state-sponsored activities, corporate espionage, or competitive intelligence gathering.
These motivations highlight the need for robust security measures, stringent data protection protocols, and employee awareness programs to mitigate the risk of intentional information leaks. Organizations must remain vigilant and proactive in safeguarding sensitive data to protect against the potential negative consequences of intentional data breaches.
Strengthen Your Defense: Mitigating Insider Threats through Employee Screening and Verification
These are the small things that could happen almost every day. It happens casually and seems just like an ordinary employee activity, like having a cuppa coffee with their friends at a nearby cafe, employees working at a public place using public connections, calling an acquaintance, and gossiping about their daily life. All of these look normal and non-harmful. But if we look closely, it could be an information breach activity. Of course, we don’t have to micromanage and tail our employees all the time because who would want to do that? The one thing we can do to mitigate an insider threat is to screen our employees from the very beginning; by verifying their identity and background. To do that, we don’t have to hire a professional spy to tail your employees. You can simply do it using ASLI RI’s verification system which can verify an individual’s information accurately and quickly.
Don’t let your guard down! Protect your business from insider threats by learning more about the risks and how ASLI RI’s verification system can help safeguard your company. Click here to discover how our solution can strengthen your defense and a secure future for your business.
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Last modified: June 16, 2023
