Deception in the Workforce: Bitglass’ 2020 Insider Threat Report

When it comes to imagining threats to enterprise cybersecurity, it is easier to conjure up ideas of malicious third parties that are plotting to infiltrate an organization. However, a considerable amount of data leakage has been caused by insider threats in recent years. Insider threats come from actors within an enterprise, whether they divulge proprietary information with malevolent intentions, or are just careless employees that unwittingly share sensitive data.

In Bitglass’ 2020 Insider Threat Report, we set out to uncover the current state of insider threats within organizations across various industries, as well as to learn how enterprises are addressing them and preventing data leakage. As such, Bitglass partnered with a cybersecurity community to survey IT and security professionals about the subject. The results contained valuable information, painting a full picture of just how safe organizations really are from insider threats, the measures they are willing to take in order to remediate them, and the unfortunate price that many pay when they lack proper security. 

The Cost of Poor Security

Over 32% of survey respondents said that the average cost of a single insider attack falls between $100K and $2M. While the former may seem negligible, the costs can still add up quickly if there are multiple incidences. Moreover, some costs associated with suffering an insider attack are less concrete and obvious than others; for example, the negative implications for brand reputation, which oftentimes result in the loss of current and prospective customers. 

In addition to the above, disruption to business operations is another type of collateral damage that organizations experience after insider attacks–38% of survey participants attested to this. While larger enterprises may overlook this statistic, recent global events demonstrate the ramifications of business operations coming to a halt. Unfortunately, among those surveyed, over 61% reported at least one insider attack at their enterprise in the last 12 months. These are some of the reasons why organizations need to prioritize comprehensive security solutions that uphold business continuity and performance. Therefore, organizations that proactively deploy the right security tools save themselves from a host of setbacks that are commonly associated with insider attacks. 

This is just a taste of what Bitglass was able to uncover in its most recent research. To learn more about how your organization can circumvent insider attacks, download the full report below.