Insider Threat

Safeguard Employees, Assets, and Information from Insider Threats

Disgruntled employees pose a universal challenge for organizations. Our experts partner with you to identify behavioral indicators for potential insider threats, effectively leveraging this critical element to help you analyze and mitigate the threat.

Employees have access to sensitive and proprietary information, computer systems, funds, and property. When employees become disgruntled, they pose a risk to your organization’s people, facilities, resources, and information, such as:

Workplace violence: Physical attacks against company personnel
Sabotage: Damaging equipment to harm others, stop production, or create economic hardship
Fraud or theft of money, property, or information
Espionage involving classified government or corporate proprietary information, media leaks, or other information disclosure

Insider threat acts of harm may vary in their method and severity, but they all have a distinct commonality: behind every insider threat is a human, and human threats can be prevented by identifying behavioral indicators. We can help you effectively leverage behavioral indicators to identify at-risk employees; understand their mindset, motivation, behavior, and intent; and resolve the perceived conflict.

Once the insider threat investigation is complete, the result may be termination. This does not mitigate the threat; it shifts the threat from internal to external, and the risk may even escalate after termination. We can help you navigate the delicate termination process to devise an optimal risk mitigation strategy.

The Evolution of Insider Threat

In the past decade, U.S. government agencies and corporations have developed insider threat programs framed as a cybersecurity issue. Conceptualizing insider threats as “1s and 0s” neglects to acknowledge the broader insider threat issues of traditional non-cyber espionage, sabotage, theft, and workplace violence perpetrated by those with access. The insider can be an employee, contractor, vendor, or even a family member of a privately held corporation.

The field has evolved to understanding insider threat as a human factors problem. The mindset and behavior a person experiences prior to committing corporate espionage, assassinating an executive, or committing a mass shooting in a workplace are similar. Applying threat assessment concepts beyond violence to other acts of harm can help organizations identify developing risks and create an atmosphere that may strengthen organizational health and resilience.