Cybercrime is becoming a huge threat for business owners of all sizes. A survey conducted by Bitglass revealed 61 percent of participating businesses reported at least one cybersecurity incident that came from within their organization. An insider threat could be anything from an employee lacking cybersecurity training, to an intentional breach facilitated by employees for personal gain.

Insider threats are increasing in frequency and severity of data breaches resulting from them. All businesses should discuss the proactive steps that they can take with their managed IT service provider. It’s also important to understand the main types of insider threat classifications so you can more easily identify them before they cause a data breach.

Types of Insider Threats

Any person with access to sensitive or critical information could potentially pose a threat to your data. Whether the information is misused unknowingly or maliciously, both could result in a devastating data breach.

Negligent Insiders – This includes careless employees of any level but particularly those with access to privileged information. This type of insider doesn’t have any motivation and is not seeking personal gain from causing a data breach. Instead, they are simply untrained in cybersecurity practices or maybe too careless in their actions. These people are more likely to fall victim to scam or to click on a phishing link that could compromise the entire network.

Malicious Insiders – This type of insider intentionally abuses their privileged access to data for their own personal gain. They may be following a particular motivation like money or revenge that causes them to act out against the company.

Contractors or Vendors – Contractors or third-party vendors may only have temporary or limited access to your company’s data. However, this could still put you at risk for a data breach. These individuals may not have the same standard of security hygiene as your business or may cause a breach for malicious intent or personal gain.

Managed IT Services Can Play Offense and Defense

Insider threats are dangerous to your company’s security and could have a massive impact on your data, primary assets, and reputation. These threats can be some of the hardest IT security threats to detect and contain. At TechSeven Partners, a managed IT service provider can help you identify, prevent, and mitigate these threats through monitoring, business continuity planning, employee education, and incident mitigation. Although there is no perfect prevention, a professional IT team and a well-executed plan can make the difference when combating insider threats and cybercrime.