Managing the insider risk is extremely complicated

Residential Security Handbook 2022: SMART Living Information Security, Residential Estate (Industry)


John Mc Loughlin.

The risk from malicious insiders has long been a priority for CISOs and has now become a top priority for other executives and board members. Employees require access to sensitive information, but heavy-handed approaches using complicated and static rules can frustrate users. This hampers productivity and leads users to search for workarounds that can also put data at risk.

Employees, contractors and partners understandably have concerns about what activity is monitored. They have questions about what data may be in scope or out of scope. More importantly, users may wonder how these monitoring systems may be biased against them and intrude on their personal privacy.

There’s one consistent and prevalent security gap in every digital enterprise in the world. Regardless of the industry, whether it’s financial, healthcare, residential or logistics, the common denominator remains the same: the human element.

A complicated task

Addressing the insider risk is extremely complicated. A recent DTEX report compares two distinct approaches: Insider Risk Management and Insider Threat Surveillance. The approaches share common goals of preventing data loss, detecting insider threats, accelerating incident response and maintaining compliance.

Insider Risk Management (IRM) views the employee as a source of intelligence rather than a subject of surveillance. It effectively flips a model of invasive monitoring to one that anonymises user intelligence and collects only the minimum amount of metadata necessary to build a forensic audit trail, with full respect for an employee’s fundamental right to privacy.

File scanning, email, web, messaging application content capture, keystroke logging and screen recording are not necessary for effective security with a metadata collection model. IRM goes beyond compliance requirements, prioritising employee privacy while still enabling worker productivity.

Insider Threat Surveillance (ITS) technologies have not only employed invasive content inspection, keystroke logging and video capture capabilities, but also often collect more data than necessary for their stated purpose. This creates unnecessary employee privacy issues, as well as significant costs associated with excess data storage and processing.

In some countries it may be illegal to monitor employees (or to use evidence from monitoring) to reprimand or dismiss them unless an Acceptable Use Policy has been well communicated to staff. In countries with well-established data protection laws, organisations must provide information about the processing of personal data, including what type of data is collected, who has access to the data, and under what circumstances monitoring may occur.

Best strategy that delivers results

Businesses need to adapt quickly to changing customer requirements and competitive pressure, and this requires an insider risk solution that takes the best strategies from a variety of approaches.

This could include rules from data loss prevention for known bad behaviour, machine learning,and behaviour analytics based on better data to identify malicious intent, and a privacy-first approach to employee monitoring that protects employees and is used in a proportionate manner.

According to Gartner, surveillance of employee activities is not without risk. Organisations commonly monitor internal communications systems (for example, email or collaboration platforms) and investigate suspected policy violations. But expansion of these activities into a more pervasive inspection of the work life of employees can infringe on employee privacy expectations and rights in the workplace.

Gartner says before organisations explore the use of insider threat tools and services, they must consult legal counsel and human resources leaders, and set boundaries on the capture, storage, sharing, analysis and destruction of data regarding employee activities.

Download the Insider Risk Management and Insider Threat Surveillance e-book (www.securitysa.com/*dtex1) to learn more about the tools available and how workforce cyber intelligence and security can help.




Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page



Further reading:

Highest increase in global cyberattacks in two years
Information Security News & Events
Check Point Global Research released new data on Q2 2024 cyber-attack trends, noting a 30% global increase in Q2 2024, with Africa experiencing the highest average weekly per organisation.

Read more...
Upgrade your PCs to improve security
Information Security Infrastructure
Truly secure technology today must be designed to detect and address unusual activity as it happens, wherever it happens, right down to the BIOS and silicon levels.

Read more...
Open source code can also be open risk
Information Security Infrastructure
Software development has changed significantly over the years, and today, open-source code increasingly forms the foundation of modern applications, with surveys indicating that 60 – 90% of the average application's code base consists of open-source components.

Read more...
DeepSneak deception
Information Security News & Events
Kaspersky Global Research & Analysis researchers have discovered a new malicious campaign which is distributing a Trojan through a fake DeepSeek-R1 Large Language Model (LLM) app for PCs.

Read more...
SA’s strained, loadshedding-prone grid faces cyberthreats
Power Management Information Security
South Africa’s energy sector, already battered by decades of underinvestment and loadshedding, faces another escalating crisis; a wave of cyberthreats that could turn disruptions into catastrophic failures. Attacks are already happening internationally.

Read more...
Almost 50% of companies choose to pay the ransom
News & Events Information Security
This year’s Sophos State of Ransomware 2025 report found that nearly 50% of companies paid the ransom to get their data back, the second-highest rate of ransom payment for ransom demands in six years.

Read more...
Survey highlights cost of cyberdamage to industrial companies
Kaspersky Information Security News & Events
The majority of industrial organisations estimate their financial losses caused by cyberattacks to be over $1 million, while almost one in four report losses exceeding $5 million, and for some, it surpasses $10 million.

Read more...
Digital economy needs an agile approach to cybersecurity
Information Security News & Events
South Africa is the most targeted country in Africa when it comes to infostealer and ransomware attacks. Being at the forefront of the continent’s digital transformation puts South Africa in the crosshairs for sophisticated cyberattacks

Read more...
SIEM rule threat coverage validation
Information Security News & Events
New AI-detection engineering assistant from Cymulate automates SIEM rule validation for SecOps and blue teams by streamlining threat detection engineering with automated testing, control integrations and enhanced detections.

Read more...
Cybersecurity a challenge in digitalising OT
Kaspersky Information Security Industrial (Industry)
According to a study by Kaspersky and VDC Research on securing operational technology environments, the primary risks are inadequate security measures, insufficient resources allocated to OT cybersecurity, challenges surrounding regulatory compliance, and the complexities of IT/OT integration.

Read more...










While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.




© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd. | All Rights Reserved.