Insider threats: The most complex and messy
Ask yourself...
Why do people join organizations with high hopes and passion; and then end up disengaging, or even worse, committing workplace sabotage?
Why is it that insiders don't fully engage in organizational security? Why do they seem distracted at the expense of vigilance for detecting social engineering (i.e. phishing and trojan horse traps)?
Why when boarding aircraft do we notice that onboarding airline agents and security are simply going through the motions while handling a photo ID? Why are they not communicating through there behavior that they are vigilant?
Why do insiders cheat-a-little bit and if left unattended to this pattern amplifies into a 'storm'?
Why do even the most honest and conscientious employees sometimes go completely off the rails into the dark world of occupational fraud, embezzlement and corruption?
Why is it people respond with aggression?
Why does someone that human resources and managers would have never imagined in their wildest dreams, commit workplace sabotage or become an active insider shooter?
Why is it that employees are completely unaware when their judgment is biased?
Insider Threats
Evolutionary and behavioral biologists, neuroscientists, endocrinologists and geneticists are among other research disciplines that collectivity are beginning to provide answers to these types of questions. For the most part all agree that workplace environment matters.
the ATRiM Group conducts insider environmental threat risk assessments as an essential compliment to the Anti-terror and other Crime Threat Risk Assessment. When insider emotional resilience is low, bad things happen. Attention focus) is depleted. The likelihood of successful cyber security attacks increases. Employee resistance to temptations decreases. . Thus, it is not a quantum leap to make the connection between workplace environment and occupational fraud, theft, corruption, workplace sabotage and workplace violence in the extreme.
Why do people join organizations with high hopes and passion; and then end up disengaging, or even worse, committing workplace sabotage?
Why is it that insiders don't fully engage in organizational security? Why do they seem distracted at the expense of vigilance for detecting social engineering (i.e. phishing and trojan horse traps)?
Why when boarding aircraft do we notice that onboarding airline agents and security are simply going through the motions while handling a photo ID? Why are they not communicating through there behavior that they are vigilant?
Why do insiders cheat-a-little bit and if left unattended to this pattern amplifies into a 'storm'?
Why do even the most honest and conscientious employees sometimes go completely off the rails into the dark world of occupational fraud, embezzlement and corruption?
Why is it people respond with aggression?
Why does someone that human resources and managers would have never imagined in their wildest dreams, commit workplace sabotage or become an active insider shooter?
Why is it that employees are completely unaware when their judgment is biased?
Insider Threats
Evolutionary and behavioral biologists, neuroscientists, endocrinologists and geneticists are among other research disciplines that collectivity are beginning to provide answers to these types of questions. For the most part all agree that workplace environment matters.
the ATRiM Group conducts insider environmental threat risk assessments as an essential compliment to the Anti-terror and other Crime Threat Risk Assessment. When insider emotional resilience is low, bad things happen. Attention focus) is depleted. The likelihood of successful cyber security attacks increases. Employee resistance to temptations decreases. . Thus, it is not a quantum leap to make the connection between workplace environment and occupational fraud, theft, corruption, workplace sabotage and workplace violence in the extreme.
Environmental Controls
Executives and senior managers implicitly communicate messages to employees through their body language, pitch and tone of voice, their words and deeds. Establishing effective insider controls begins with setting the tone from the top; combined with situationally consistent reinforcement of the organization's values. Employees' perception of the organization they work for is heavily influenced by how they are treated by their supervisors and line managers. It is important to assess workplace environment for policies, guidelines, business and personal practices that erode resilience (emotions) and which potentially trigger negative employee behaviors. From a security perspective it is important to eliminate environmental conditions which provide rationalizations or excuses when insiders happen to be tempted to do bad things.
Insider Cybersecurity Risk Mitigation
Security is always a challenge inside complex systems. the ATRiM Group consults like-minded subject matter specialists, such as Canada's Cyber Security Canada and Australia's Naked Insider. Both these companies go the extra mile to get to the roots of insider cybersecurity threats.
Specialized areas of competency for these companies include:
i) procedures, policies and technologies to address insider threats;
ii) creating cooperation synergies for detecting, preventing and responding to insider threats;
ii) education on insider threats;
v) assistance to those dealing with and managing insider threats; and iv) steps and techniques for engaging insiders in threat prevention, detection and response.
Specialized areas of competency for these companies include:
i) procedures, policies and technologies to address insider threats;
ii) creating cooperation synergies for detecting, preventing and responding to insider threats;
ii) education on insider threats;
v) assistance to those dealing with and managing insider threats; and iv) steps and techniques for engaging insiders in threat prevention, detection and response.
Workplace Sabotage and Workplace Violence
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Both hugely complex and messy to deal with, the human brain is coined a "predictive machine" by neurologist Lisa Feldman Barrett.
The human brain, as with all animals, evolved from a small nervous system in an ancient multi-cell species; to the brain of reptiles, to the building of an emotional center in mammals and finally to the the complexity of an interconnected, multi-layered organ that includes language, math and problem solving. An evolutionary biology nugget: Evolution is a tinkerer, not a builder. The result is some pretty nutty wiring. When asked about the triggers to a human behavior; environmental biologists, neurologists, molecular geneticists and endocrinologists will qualify their response with a caveat: "It depends on context." A whole bunch of factors, not the least of which is workplace environment, have to be considered. So, does it not make good business sense to get a better handle on workplace environmental triggers that induce workplace sabotage and workplace violence in some people? |
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