Combating the Accidental Insider Data Leakage Threat

Article by Andrea Babbs, UK General Manager, VIPRE SafeSend

Cybercrime has rapidly become the world’s fastest growing form of criminal activity, and is showing no sign of slowing down with the number of attacks on businesses rising by more than 50% in the last year alone. While most corporates have made significant efforts to invest in cybersecurity defences to protect their organisations from the outside threat of cybercrime, few have addressed the risk of breaches that stem from the inside in the same way. Insider threats can come from accidental error, such as an employee mistakenly sending a sensitive document to the wrong contact, or from negligence such as an employee downloading unauthorised software that results in a virus spreading through the company’s systems.

We’re all guilty of accidentally hitting send on an email to the wrong person, or attaching the wrong document; but current levels of complacency around email security culture are becoming an ever greater threat. Few organisations have a clear strategy for helping their employees understand how a simple error can put the company at significant risk; even fewer have a strategy for mitigating that risk and protecting their staff from becoming an inside threat.

So where does the responsibility lie to ensure that company data is kept secure and confidential?
According to reports, 34% of all breaches are caused by insider fault, yet many employees are unaware of their responsibility when it comes to data protection. With employee carelessness and complacency the leading causes of data breaches - understandable when human error is inevitable in pressured working environments - there is clearly a lack of awareness and training. And while there is an obvious and urgent need for better employee education, should IT leaders not be doing more to provide the tools that take the risk of making accidental mistakes out of employees’ hands?

With simple technology in place that provides an essential double check for employees - with parameters determined by corporate security protocols - before they send sensitive information via email, accidental data loss can be minimised and an improved and proactive email security culture achieved. In addition to checking the validity of outbound and inbound email addresses and attachments - thereby also minimising the risk of staff falling foul of a phishing attack - the technology can also be used to check for keywords and data strings in the body of the email, to identify confidential or sensitive data before the user clicks send.

In order for organisations to limit the number of insider data breaches, it’s crucial for employees to understand the role they play in keeping the company’s data secure. But in addition to supporting employees with training, deploying an essential tool that prompts for a second check and warns when a mistake is about to be made, organisations can mitigate the risk of accidental error, and the potentially devastating consequences that might have on the business.

Email is arguably the key productivity tool in most working environments today; placing the full burden of responsibility for the security of that tool on employees is both an unnecessary overhead and, increasingly, a security risk. In contrast, supporting staff with a simple, extra prompt for them to double check they aren’t mistakenly sharing confidential data raises awareness, understanding and provides that essential security lock-step – before it’s too late.