Insider Threat Paper

453 Words2 Pages
In the past, the US Government and specifically the Department of Defense have been in the forefront of Information Technology and Information Security advances. While the government uses its vast resources to protect national defense information from outside attacks, little effort seems to be focused on deterring or defeating attacks from insider threats. To highlight this statement, figures from 2013 indicated that 1.4 million Americans have Top Secret security clearances; this does not count those with Secret level clearance or those personnel with access to sensitive but unclassified government and defense information (Madar, 2013). The same figures indicate cleared government personnel create 1.83 million classified documents each week…show more content…
Insider threats are those employees that by virtue of their placement and access to the information systems have authorized access to data and information. Subsequently these personnel through negligence or purposeful intent, damage or corrupt data and systems, interrupt the processing of data or disclose the data and information to unauthorized individuals (Toxen, 2014). An insider could be a disgruntled employee, a malignant actor working for a rival company, or a regular employee that has bypassed or become complacent with established security procedures and protocols. An insider threat could be the janitor who has unfettered access to the building and offices during non-work hours. The insider threat may have authorized access to certain data to perform their duties, but may attempt to gain access for which they have no need to know or requirement in order to accomplish their duties. The truth is anyone with access to the building and information could be an “insider threat.” Information Security personnel categorize Insider threat into four major categories, sabotage of company computers, theft of proprietary information, release of sensitive data and Espionage (Clayton, 2011). The sheer volume of classified and national defense data created in a single year provides a plethora of opportunities for insider to steal data unnoticed. What then can the US Government do to deter or eliminate insider threats? The US Government learned many things over the last decade about insider threats; two well-publicized cases are those of Bradley Manning and Edward

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