Ignore the Insider Threat at Your Peril

Integrate security strategies and policies: Integrating the other 10 countermeasures listed below, or, better yet, having a comprehensive insider threat program with other existing strategies (such as a risk management framework, human resources management, and intellectual property management) can help strengthen efficiency, cohesion, and timeliness in addressing insider threats.

Conduct threat-hunting activities: Refine threat-hunting capabilities such as threat intelligence, Dark Web monitoring, behavioral analysis, and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to search, monitor, detect, and investigate suspicious user and user account activities, both inside and outside the enterprise.

Perform vulnerability scanning and penetration scanning: Leverage vulnerability assessments and penetration tests to identify gaps within a security strategy, including potential ways for insider threats to maneuver within the enterprise environment.

Implement personnel security measures: Human resource controls (such as employee exit processes), security access principles, and security awareness training can mitigate the number of cybersecurity incidents associated with unauthorized access to enterprise systems.

Employ physical security measures: Physical methods to limit access such as identity badges and security doors should coincide with digital access methods such as card swipes, motion detectors, and cameras.

Implement network security solutions: Implement network perimeter and segment security solutions, such as firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems, gateway devices, and data loss prevention solutions in order to detect, collect, and analyze suspicious traffic potentially associated with insider threat activities. This will help highlight any unusual out-of-hours activity, volumes of outbound activity, and the use of remote connections.

Employ endpoint security solutions: Use established endpoint security solutions, such as critical asset inventories, removable media policies, device encryption and file integrity monitoring tools in order to deter, monitor, track, collect, and analyze user-related activity.

Apply data security measures: Apply data ownership, classification and protection as well as data disposal measures in order to manage the data life cycle and maintain confidentiality, integrity and availability with insider threats in mind.

Employ identity and access management measures: Employ identity, access and authentication management measures to manage limit and protect access into the enterprise environment. This can be taken to the next level by employing a privileged access management solution for privileged access.

Establish incident management capabilities: Establishing an incident management process to include an insider threat playbook with trained and capable incident handlers will make cybersecurity response activities more efficient and more effective in addressing insider threat activities.

Retain digital forensics services: Have an investigative response retained resource available which is capable of conducting a full spectrum of deep-dive investigations ranging from the analysis of logs, files, endpoint, and network traffic, in often delicate and human-related (or user-account-related) cybersecurity incidents.