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Data Breach by Insiders: Three Key Steps to Keep Your Company Out of the Headlines

By Sam Chi
February 01, 2017

For many of us, the term “data breach” conjures up images of a shadowy character in a dark hoodie — a nefarious criminal. But the more we understand about how data breach incidents originate and propagate, the more likely we are to shift focus from outsider hackers to insider threats. Insider threats can be malicious, but often they are accidental. Rather than a shadowy scoundrel, your greater security risk might very well be Alice in the accounting department, who absentmindedly leaves her laptop on the bus.

No organization, including tech and social media companies, is immune to a data breach resulting from ignorant or malicious behavior of employees or business partners. Earlier in 2016, a payroll department employee at Snapchat received a spear-phishing email that appeared to be from Snapchat Chief Executive Evan Spiegel. The employee replied to the email, inadvertently sending sensitive personal information on about 700 current and former workers to an outside party.

In order to avoid being the subject of the next data breach story in the headlines, corporate leaders must take three key steps. First, they must understand the nature of insider threats. With that knowledge, they must support policies and procedures to deter and detect insider threats. Most importantly, they must actively build a culture of awareness and care on the part of employees to protect and secure proprietary enterprise data.

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