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Malicious Insiders: The Biggest threat to Privileged accounts

Digital revolution– Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing– has helped improving IT operational efficiency, decision-making as well as return on investments (ROI). However, with every passing day, the types of IT threats are also getting complex and sophisticated. With the number of critical systems, databases, and applications increasing rapidly, the number of privileged users is simultaneously growing. It has given rise to insider threats.

Malicious insiders’ threat is rising

Since privileged users possess elevated access rights to target systems, they should likely be trustworthy enough to maintain the confidentiality of the organization’s data assets. Unfortunately, it might not be the same always. Traditionally, it is believed that outsiders pose a big threat to organization as far as IT security is concerned. However, malicious insiders pose the biggest threat to organizations in terms of data misuse and unauthorized activities.

The latest report from Verizon reveals that the number of organizations suffering from malicious insiders is increasing rapidly. While 2017 observed 28% of the organizations suffering from malicious insiders, the number of victims shot up to almost 34% in 2018. In one of our previous articles, we have discussed how malicious insiders can wreak havoc on organizations inflicting heavy irrecuperable losses.

Malicious insiders are likely to access confidential information without any intrusion alert. Internal employees with malicious intentions have an additional advantage of accessing database servers, application servers in the enterprise network as they are privy to confidential information, people and policies.

Adding to the woes, malicious insiders are much more challenging to figure out because the users are normally authorized to access critical data assets. For insider threats, it is easier to exploit a large amount of data without anyone knowing the source of the attacks. If the IT environment comprises of hundreds of privileged users, then automatically it becomes a huge challenge for the IT administrators to manage, control and monitor their activities in real-time. This way, the sensitive business information become vulnerable to breaches and often targeted by malicious insiders.

How to overcome the malicious insider challenge?

The most effective way to overcome the malicious insider challenge is by building an effective risk control framework, which is provided by Privileged Access Management (PAM). This solution can help organizations get rid of data breach worries originating from the insiders. The practice offers a bunch of functionalities that ensure restrictive end-user access to target systems. ARCON | PAM ensures:

  • The principle of least privileges
  • Having robust and frequent privileged Password randomization
  • Multi-factor Authentication process
  • Incorporating granular level access to the privileged accounts
  • Privileged user authorization
  • Continuous monitoring of privileged sessions

ARCON is a leading enterprise risk control solutions provider, specializing in risk-predictive technologies. ARCON | User Behaviour Analytics enables to monitor end-user activities in real time. ARCON | Privileged Access Management reinforces access control and mitigates data breach threats. ARCON | Secure Compliance Management is a vulnerability assessment tool.

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