Insiders Now The Biggest Security Threat - Twenty-Four Seven Security

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September 17, 2007
Insiders Now The Biggest Security Threat

According to the Computer Security Institute (CSI), company insiders have now overtaken viruses as the greatest threat to corporate computer security.

For the 2007 Computer Crime and Security Survey reported by Infoworld, the CSI questioned 494 security folks from different US companies and government organizations, finding that an insider incident had occurred with 59 percent of the respondents, with only 52 percent saying they had caught a computer virus in the past year.

The good news is that both insider incidents and viruses have been falling since the year 2000, when the two reached their zenith, but this is the very first time that insider incidents have eclipsed viruses. The CSI does define insider incidents in a very general way, including leaking or stealing company information, but also such things as using pirated software, or accessing pornography.

The other type of threat that the CSI is seeing an explosion of is "laptop and mobile device" theft, which many think will also soon overtake viruses as the second most realized security threat. The survey also recorded a growing incidence of targeted attacks, where 28 percent of the companies felt like they have been carefully chosen for a specific attack.

Internet-based attacks were also found to be more integrated, thereby blurring the lines between consumer and corporate security, which used to be seen as separate concerns.

"In the past, the struggle has been cast as one between security professionals and the criminals who attack their networks. Now, the picture is more complicated. Criminals attack both enterprise networks and steal customer data. They use this data to then attack individual consumers," the report concludes.

With the frightening rise of insider attacks, perhaps the corporate motto of the 21st Century is going to be, "Keep your employees happy."