Guarding Against The Internal Security Threat

Delano Collins

It sounds like the plot of a made-for-TV movie: a fresh-faced go-getter of a company partners with a dream employee who promises they’ll be happy and successful together. But on the inside, that employee is a monster lying in wait, ready to emerge and make the company’s life hell.

Here are two stories about what happens when one of those monsters comes out – and when there isn’t adequate IT security in place to keep them from wreaking havoc with sensitive company data. Meanwhile, security solution providers need to communicate the potential dangers that lie within the company’s technology infrastructure.

I don’t want to sensationalize data security dangers or make companies scared of their own employees. It’s indeed a rare employee who causes any IT-related trouble (although it happens more often than people think). The lesson here is that companies need not fear the actions of employees if they establish reliable security safeguards such as encryption and data control. If you’re reading this, you’re learning this lesson the easy way.

But the companies in these two stories did not.