Much has made recently of the "insider threat" and how it can affect an organization's data security. But which is really a bigger threat to your organization? A hacker or a disgruntled employee with access to the company's confidential data?
The answer might surprise you. Although the intent of a hacker is generally more insidious (stealing your banking log-in, for example), the insider threat is actually more costly simply due to an employee's access to company data.
A recent survey, "2011 CyberSecurity Watch Survey" found that, although there are more instances of cyber threats, their overall cost is less than that of an insider-caused data breach. The survey concluded that more attacks (58%) are caused by outsiders (those without authorized access to network systems and data) versus 21% of attacks caused by insiders (employees or contractors with authorized access)... however 33% view the insider attacks to be more costly.
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