Research by the Ponemon Institute found that insider incidents involving credential theft cost organisations an average of $842,462 each, while those caused by negligence and malicious insiders cost an average of $747,107 and $742,125 respectively.
These costs can accumulate through investigations, incident response, system recovery, business interruption, lost productivity, legal action, regulatory penalties, and reputational damage.
In contrast to the threat posed by external attackers, insider threat involves actors who already possess some degree of legitimate access to the victim’s physical premises or computer networks. They may know where valuable information is stored, which critical systems to target, and how to bypass security controls.
In some cases, the individual does not even need to act maliciously: a simple mistake or stolen set of credentials can produce similar consequences. The first step in reducing insider risk is therefore understanding what an insider threat is, the different forms it can take, and how organisations can reduce their exposure.
