Internal cyberattacks on companies rising, security researchers reveal key challenges

Cybersecurity researchers have warned against increasing insider threats affecting businesses around world. In ir recent report (via Malwarebytes), researchers have described how insider threats weaken cybersecurity of companies. Security researchers have also described number of challenges that companies face when it comes to dealing with insider threats.

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Study findings

-- 58 per cent of organisations participated in study said y are not effective when it comes to monitoring, detecting and responding to insider threats.

-- 63 per cent of organisations consider privileged IT users biggest security risk. Meanwhile, 51 per cent of regular employees, 50 per cent temporary works and 50 per cent executives echo a similar opinion about privileged IT workers.

-- 68 per cent of organisations feel that y are moderate to extremely vulnerable to insider threats.

-- 52 per cent of organisations find it difficult to detect and prevent internal threats than external attacks.

-- 68 per cent of organisations have observed that insider threats have become more frequent in past 12 months.

Apart from key findings, researchers highlight some of primary reasons why organisations are facing difficulties in detecting and preventing insider threats. Some of reasons include an increase in use of a number of software applications that leak data, furr resulting in misuse of credential or access credentials.

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Following are some of reasons why organisations are more prone to internal cyber threats:

-- 59 per cent of insiders have access to company's network and services.

-- 50 per cent increment in use of third-party applications that are likely to leak data.

-- 47 per cent increment in amount of data that leaves protected boundary.

-- 38 per cent end-user devices are capable of data ft.

-- 35 per cent migration of sensitive data to cloud along with option of cloud apps.

-- 32 per cent insiders are sophisticated.

-- 28 per cent difficulty in detecting rogue devices introduced into network or systems.

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Security researchers previously discovered that as much as 67 per cent of companies do not report cybersecurity incidents to regulators. Although it is mandatory for companies to follow compliance rules, companies defy reporting guidelines, possibly to keep away from regulatory punishments and public disclosure that can hurt ir reputation.