The Road To The Truth About Insider Threats

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” – Galileo Galilei New research from the Ponemon Institute was released this week, indicating that the majority of executives have a ways to go before they discover the staggering truth about the dangers of insider threats. The study says only 16 percent of respondents indicated that CEOs and other C-level executives acknowledge the dangers of insider fraud as significant. This statistic is a little shocking, given the volume of news stories published on an almost daily basis involving insider threats and the staggering financial effects they can have on an organization. Other statistics that pave the way to the truth include: • More than 75 percent of the respondents indicated that privileged users within their organizations had, or were likely to, turn off or alter application controls to change sensitive information – and will then reset the controls to cover their tracks. • 81 percent said that their employees had used, or were likely to use, someone else’s credentials to gain elevated rights or bypass separation of duty controls. • On average, respondents noted their organizations experience more than one incident of employee-related fraud each week, with 24 percent saying their organizations have experienced more than 100 incidents in the past 12 months. • Once an incident has occurred, it takes organizations an average of 89 days to discover it and an additional 96 days to uncover the root cause and determine the consequences to the organization.