What’s your insider Threat?
What is Cyberwarfare? There is still widespread debate around the true definition of “cyberwarfare.’ Some experts define it as an “extension of policy by actions taken in cyberspace by state actors that constitute a serious threat to another state’s security.” Others in the field believe that cyberwarfare is the “use of technological force within networks in which information is stored, shared or communicated online”. The commonality among most definitions of the term is that warfare has already spread from traditional terrestrial domains into cyberspace.
The global influence of nations is traditionally derived from their economic wealth and the mechanisms by which they control that wealth. So it stands to reason that this would be a huge target for state-sponsored cyberwarfare. The United States Treasury and Commerce Departments endured just such an attack over recent months. This became public on December 14th, 2020.The US government acknowledged that Russia likely conducted a cyberespionage campaign which penetrated government agencies byinjecting malicious code into popular software updates.. The hack allowed remote access into unclassified government networks and allowed the hackers to steal information and exploit access. The hackers were given a “Gods-Eye View” of these networks, one of them being the US Treasury.
Wouldn’t the hackers’ location have been a “red flag” for cybersecurity experts within the US government as well as contractors who are paid to secure government networks? Assuming that the US Treasury has contacts and vendors around the world, wouldn’t there have been a “whitelist” of locations so that if a group of users appeared out of the ordinary, network monitors would have been notified? This question is pertinent for a government agency just as it is for every company, large or small.
So what’s the solution? What technology could have helped prevent these attacks?
The solution is DefendEdge’s SiON software. SiON is an artificial intelligence-powered platform for detecting and stopping insider threats. A hacker that signs in from a location atypical from the actual owner of the credentials? SiON would have flagged and acted upon this anomalous behavior immediately; SiON is able to pinpoint the exact location of every login. Are credentials already compromised? With endpoint security integration, any compromised device would have been shut-off immediately and credentials would be immediately disabled. SiON is a platform designed to give a bird’s-eye view of everything that is going on across your company’s network at the tip of your fingers. It continuously monitors attacks to your network, monitors infections that are currently lingering on your employees’ computers, and gives you the ability to act fast and stop attacks before they gain access to your network.
“We were breached because our sensitive files were leaked since we were unaware that unnecessary access was granted to employees” – this is a typical example of an insider threat for many organizations. As the name suggests, an insider threat is a risk posed by an organization due to a few untrustworthy employees. Commonly, organizations focus on external threats, build cybersecurity measures around those situations. But it is important to identify internal security risks and prepare a plan to avoid and mitigate such scenarios.
Investigating various types of insider threats:
· Negligent: This happens when employees behave carelessly and lack security awareness, for instance downloading non-legacy software giving hackers easy access to devices
· Accidental: These situations occur when an individual gives away sensitive information accidentally, for example, phishing attempts to acquire the user’s sensitive information.
· Malicious: A bad actor intentionally performs negative actions against an organization for their own profits.
Why do these threats put organizations at risk?
Hackers need to find loopholes and understand the infrastructure before they can initiate an attack. On the other hand, an employee who has malicious intent already has legitimate access to internal assets and is very much aware of the loopholes of the infrastructure, hence it is easier to take advantage. It is of great importance to restrict high-level access to sensitive information to a limited set of employees. Misuse of elevated privileges leads to increased data breaches. The risk factor becomes twice if an organization does not have a proper monitoring and detection system to find user anomalies. This is where DefendEdge can deploy SiON in your network to protect and increase the capability to identify security risks from insider threats.
Preparing defensive measures against insider threats:
1. Monitor internal activities
2. Anticipate threats and identify anomalous behavior
3. Protect data privacy and assets
4. Prepare a roadmap to react upon such incidents
DefendEdge’s solution to tackling insider threats:
DefendEdge has developed ‘SiON’ to make it easier for organizations to monitor insider threats and take appropriate actions against them. We monitor the user’s activities based on five connectors. One of them being most important is the Firewall. We identify malicious activities with the help of network logs. Along with that, we can examine the employee’s sign-ins to find any anomalous pattern and take appropriate actions. Managing appropriate entitlements and elevated access is possible with SiON ’s seamless integration with the Active Directory. Your device and data are safe with us because SiON knows it!