Insider Network Threats: What You Should Know

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Cyber breaches are not a new phenomenon, but they’ve unfortunately been on the rise in the last few years. In fact, a large number of businesses in various fields have fallen victim to cyber attacks in the previous two years alone. Thus, enterprises have started investing in applications that can fend off external hacking attempts. Despite popular belief, however, not all cyber attacks are initiated from the outside. In fact, many breaches are by people who are most likely trusted by the company. In this article, we’ll discuss some different kinds of insider network threats and how you can keep them at bay.

The Problems Brought About By the BYOD Movement

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies have been on the rise thanks to mobile devices such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets. However, they have created even more opportunities for hackers to retrieve sensitive information.

Yes, you can secure all of your company’s computers with the latest firewalls, anti-virus software, and breach detection applications. Unfortunately, you can’t know for sure whether your employees’ personal devices have the same level of protection. In some cases, companies simply ban employees from using personal devices for work-related purposes. But unless you have a network security platform in place, you won’t know for sure whether they’re actually following your strict policy or not.

If at all possible, you may want to restrict your employee’s access to certain applications to a single device only. Regardless of whether or not you do implement BYOD, you’ll need an application that can immediately alert you of login attempts from any unauthorized devices.

Some Breaches Are Caused by Employee Negligence

Though some breaches are deliberate attacks, some are simply the result of employees’ carelessness. One of the most common methods that hackers use to sneak into networks is phishing for information. This involves sending fake e-mails to staff members, usually claiming that a breach has been detected and that they have to reset their passwords.

What many may not realize is that the links in these e-mails lead to fakes website that hackers use to collect login information. Once unsuspecting employees willingly input their username and password into the fake website, they’ve unknowingly handed over access to their accounts. Thus, it’s crucial for all businesses to be vigilant and constantly educate staff members on the latest known cyber attack methods. They must know how to detect these tactics before any information can be stolen from right under their noses.

Insider Threats Are Not Limited to Your Own Staff

Though the bulk of your worries do concern your own employees, you must also consider third-party users who may pose a threat to your network. This includes outsourced online workers, remote vendors, and contractors.

Even if you educate your own staff, your third-party users may not have the same awareness of cyber attack tactics as you do. They might even be the perpetrators of a breach and will attempt to carry it out when nobody is keeping an eye on the system. Thus, a platform with behavioral attack detection can help you stop suspicious activity even when you and your own employees are off the clock.

Even a single breach could spell the end for your company, as the average data breach can cost nearly $6 million in damages. Though you may think that your company is safe from these attacks, your enterprise is just as vulnerable as any other in the industry. Now is the best time to protect your business with as many security precautions as possible.

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About Dequiana Jackson

Dequiana Jackson, Founder of Inspired Marketing, Inc., helps overachieving women entrepreneurs conquer limiting beliefs and create marketing plans that grow their businesses. This includes one-on-one marketing plan development, digital product creation, web design and content marketing. Dequiana is the author of Know Your Business: How to Attract Ideal Clients & Sell More and runs the award-winning blog, Entrepreneur-Resources.net.

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