It has been nearly six years since the inception of WikiLeaks, yet the U.S. government has just begun to identify methods to combat insider threats within the military. In October, President Obama established an “Insider Threat Task Force” to help prevent potentially damaging and embarrassing exposure of government secrets.
He also unveiled new computer security rules to government agencies handling classified intelligence after months of investigating the events leading up to WikiLeaks. In December, the Department of Defense budget passed, which includes a mandate for the creation of a new insider threat program.
Earlier in the year the White House revealed language on new legislation directing private industries to improve computer security voluntarily and have those standards reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security. It has become all too clear that the U.S. government, from federal to state, down to the city level, also has plenty of work to do on preventing insider attacks.
It's about time the White House is catching up with ideas we have been educating the world on for years. Establishing a Least Privilege environment is the first step to achieving an IT environment whereby everyone can still be productive, while being secure.
You should also read the book called "Preventing Good People From Doing Bad Things" if you want to better identify insider threats and how to protect against them.
Scott Lang, Sr. Director, Product Marketing at BeyondTrust
Scott Lang has nearly 20 years of experience in technology product marketing, currently guiding the product marketing strategy for BeyondTrust’s privileged account management solutions and vulnerability management solutions. Prior to joining BeyondTrust, Scott was director of security solution marketing at Dell, formerly Quest Software, where he was responsible for global security campaigns, product marketing for identity and access management and Windows server management.