How to reduce internal and external threats to organizations

With the current state of the global economy and employees feeling ever more pressure, internal security threats are on the rise. Examples of internal security threats include a laid off worker using company credit cards to take his family on a cruise and embezzlement by company executives. In addition to theft of the company’s funds and resources, internal and external threats to organizations pose other risks, which can be quite serious.

Internal and External Threats to Organizations

Threats coming from outside the company always entail ill intent. They are performed for the purposes of stealing data, disrupting company processes, and damaging the company’s operation. Though external security attacks always speak to the possibility of intentional harm to an organization, an internal security threat is another risk that must be taken seriously. Blackmail and other illicit activities are possible within a company, though it is worth noting that negligence is often a factor in internal threats to information security activities. For this reason, it is very important for a company’s employees to be rigorously trained in policy and procedure, and to ensure that they’re strictly followed.

Internal Security Threats Definition

Internal threats are attacks that begin within a company, government agency, or institution, normally by an unhappy employee who perhaps was informed that soon he would be out of work or would not get a promotion that he’d been hoping for. The damage or threat does not necessarily have to be done by the employee himself, but rather he may be manipulated into allowing it. Stay aware of moods and tendencies within your team.

Internal vs External Cyber Security Threats

If a company has a firewall and IPS protection installed, external security threats are for the most part covered. The more difficult threat to account for is internal security attacks. Many weaknesses exist in an organization’s security due to a lack of top-down control. Organizations must implement more complex passwords and ensure that users in abnormal locations are restricted.

Outside attackers often attempt to manipulate a company’s personnel and appeal to an employee’s good nature in order to take advantage. They may pose as an official company’s tech support, requesting sensitive information, which may reveal the organization’s weaknesses. Other employees may write them, claiming to have lost their validation token or identification card. So it’s crucial to perform real-time monitoring in order to protect your company assets.

How to Reduce Threats to Internal Validity

Threats to internal validity include: history, testing, maturation, instrumentation, regression, selection, experimental morality, and an interaction of attacks. Internal threat programs employ specific prevention, detection, and particular response procedure to mitigate these threats. A useful medium for safeguarding a company from such attacks is an internal security threat report. What an information security threat report does is provide an overview of the threat landscape, including the latest scams and trends in threat activity worldwide, reasons why the popularity of certain types of cybercrimes is going up, and helps detect weaknesses within a company. As attacks grow ever more sophisticated, now is a better time than ever to monitor that one’s company funds and information are safe.

By Zakir Hussain- Director, BD Soft India