For enterprise-level organizations, it's no longer enough to protect data and systems from nefarious external agents. Organizations must also implement defensive measures to protect themselves from something much closer to home: insider threats.
Internal cyber attacks happen inadvertently or on purpose. We want to share the four types of insider threats and some defensive measures that help organizations reduce the risk of these threats.
Instead of jumping into a zero-trust environment that's so restrictive it hampers productivity and user-experience, remember that most of your employees and trusted partners do not have malicious intent. Inadvertent or unintended insider attacks happen because the insider is oblivious or negligent.
An oblivious attack is when someone with access to company information is compromised by an outside agent but doesn't realize it. This can happen when someone leaves a company device unattended or uses unencrypted Wi-Fi on a company device.
A negligent attack is when someone bypasses a security protocol, often to speed up a work process or because of a lack of knowledge about the security protocol. When employees lack proper security training, they're more vulnerable to phishing and spear phishing attempts.
The two primary types of intentional insider attacks come from malicious and professional attackers.
A malicious attack comes from an insider who becomes disgruntled and goes rogue to get even with the company for a real or imagined offense. This could involve stealing data or sabotaging a company network or system.
A professional attack comes from an insider who is a career thief. This involves exploiting system vulnerabilities for profit.
While blunt force attacks remain a common threat at the gates of any firewall, there are also ways for malicious actors to attack your company through the inside. Called social engineering attacks, a hacker might impersonate someone at an organization via stolen credentials, stolen information or supply chain attack. A smart air conditioning unit, for example, might be connected to an organization network, creating a third-party backdoor vulnerability bypassing frontline defenses.
With all these foxes in the hen house, organizations are wise to take a defensive approach to insider threats.
Get the Board on board – Even in 2019, it's common for boards to not ask about or understand cybersecurity. Rafael Narezzi, a prominent Cyber Security Strategist, suggests that everyone on the Board of Directors must "understand what [cybersecurity] is. Not in deep technical talk but the consequences for the business if they don't act." When the Board and senior leadership team understands the cost and consequences of cyber threats, there will be more support for cybersecurity initiatives.This lack of attention is more common than you'd probably guess. PwC's Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2018[i] found that less than half of surveyed organizations had conducted a cybercrime risk assessment. This is despite cybercrime being one of the top three most reported frauds!
Automatic encryption policies that apply encryption under defined circumstances (such as when certain information or keywords appear in an email).
Multiple flexible delivery methods for different types of secure encrypted communications that allow the sender to control how a message is sent and whether to include features like a time limit.
Easy and frictionless user experience for employees and customers.With a frictionless user experience—for example, with the Echoworx One World encryption platform—employees are less likely to bypass security protocols because they're built into regular workflows and don't make security a burden for senders or recipients.In addition to reducing risks to insider threats, there are financial benefits to adopting a flexible, frictionless encryption solution. A recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, for example, revealed that a typical enterprise-level organization can enjoy $2.7M in cost-mitigating benefits through employing our flexible OneWorld encryption solution. Get the full Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study of OneWorld now.
Educate staff on cybersecurity – Even though employees know why they shouldn't open attachments and click links from strange emails or use "p@ssw0rd" as a password, they're still vulnerable to attacks because cybercrime is increasingly sophisticated. To change that, make sure all employees take part in regular and effective cybersecurity training that helps them understand why it's important, how to implement security measures at work and how to spot sophisticated phishing and spear phishing scams.Training can include tests and tricks. A good trick involves sending a fake phishing attempt to staff to reinforce real-world lessons from the cybersecurity training.
Build security into all products and processes from the start – Train developer teams to create products that are secure by design. Frédéric Virmont, a cybersecurity industry expert, says, "Security is like quality; it must be from the beginning to the end of the life cycle. For developers, now we have tools where they can code and check security along the way. If you wait until the end of the product, it's too late. Once the house is built, it's too late to add emergency exits."This idea includes permissions architecture. A non-secure design gives all users access to more data than necessary. To be security minded, create a permissions architecture that gives access based on needs and roles. For example, the chief marketing officer wouldn't have the same permissions as customer service agents.
Make cybersecurity the path of least resistance for all users – Like it or not, we do what's easy. For organizations, this means that overly-complex data security protocols hamper adoption. Because cybersecurity methods only work when staff and customers use them, user-experience must always be considered and prioritized.Going back to the encryption example above, we've found that a lot of internal users are reluctant to send encrypted emails because they don't know how to encrypt them or don't like the spammy look for their recipient. These are two unnecessary barriers that get in the way of frictionless security and set the stage perfectly for negligent insider attacks.
Insider threats are real and a recent PwC report in the US found that 32 per cent of respondents consider insider threats costlier and more damaging than external incidents.
By taking a security approach that involves a frictionless encryption solution, security by design (and the path of least resistance) and effective education for staff and the Board of Directors, your organization can minimize risks associated with malicious and unintentional insider attacks.
Given all of the above, is why at Echoworx, encryption is all we do. Our OneWorld encryption platform and cloud security services are a natural extension to existing security programs and offers a wide range of flexible options for secure message delivery. You can learn more about the benefits of Echoworx OneWorld encryption here.
In a nutshell, healthcare is in critical condition when it comes to cybersecurity.
To address this condition, enterprise-level healthcare organizations, hospitals and their third-party business associates can increase data security and reduce risks of breaches by implementing user-friendly and customer-centric encryption services.
Customer-centric encryption is so important in healthcare because many agencies are transforming from paper to digital records while dealing with preventable insider threats (often in the form of delivery errors). This means to get the most out of encryption, healthcare organizations must consider how easy it is for patients, employees and business associates to use and trust the encryption solution.
Integration of privacy by design features like definable policies to control which communications require encryption and how they are sent. This takes security decision-making out of the picture for busy healthcare administrators and ensures your organization stays compliant with regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Multiple flexible delivery methods for different types of secure encrypted communications, including secure PDF (e.g., secure record delivery) and web portal access, TLS and encrypted attachments and support for S/MIME and PGP.
Easy and frictionless user experience for employees, patients and business associates. This is especially relevant in healthcare organizations that serve an aging population who aren't as tech-savvy as the general population. The World Health Organization suggests, "primary health care must be accessible and friendly to persons of all ages."[iii] We agree and believe this applies to accessing patient records too.
Secure bulk mail functionality that automates the process of emailing mass personalized documents securely. As the British National Health Service (NHS) can attest from its 2017 experience, losing 900,000 patient letters is no good for patient trust in their system.
Multiple brand and language options to give patients the peace of mind that comes with receiving secure messages from a trusted source.
Dedicated account support to help organizations understand how email encryption fits into their patient care and business models.
As we've seen in other industries like banking, trust is becoming a new currency and this equally applies in healthcare because patient data is so personal. Healthcare patients expect that medical transactions—including booking an online appointment, communicating with a medical professional and having health records sent between institutions—are safe and secure, which builds trust. If patients don't believe your healthcare organization can protect their data, they lose faith and—when possible—they leave. A recent Echoworx survey found that 80 per cent of customers consider leaving a brand after a data breach. With so many leaders concerned about organizational reputation—and in an increasingly competitive private healthcare landscape—can you afford an encryption solution that doesn't give your employees, patients and business associates a frictionless user experience?
In addition to supporting a patient-centred business model and reducing the risks of insider threats, there are financial benefits associated with adopting a flexible and frictionless encryption solution.
A recent Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, for example, revealed that a typical enterprise-level organization using Echoworx's OneWorld encryption platform can accelerate the adoption of digital document delivery, save $1 per paper document delivered digitally instead of through the postal system and accumulate a three-year cost savings of $1.5M. This same study showed that adopting OneWorld's self-service support options, like automatic password resets, increases call centre productivity, removes the need for additional overhead and can slash nearly $320K off the bottom line of an enterprise-level organization.
Read the full Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study of OneWorld now.
With so much at stake in healthcare, isn't it time to integrate a frictionless encryption solution into your healthcare organization?
This is why at Echoworx, encryption is all we do. Our OneWorld encryption platform and cloud security services are a natural extension to existing security programs and offers a wide range of flexible options for secure message delivery. You can learn more about the ROI of Echoworx OneWorld encryption here.