Insider Threats In A Gig Economy: Some Perspectives

By Author: appsian
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87 percent of firms have encountered an incident with a third party that interrupted their operations, according to Deloitte. In order to do their job, gig staff, contractors, service providers, and consultants frequently need remote access to sensitive corporate resources. Yet, many businesses do not apply to third parties the same protection principles as they do to internal workers. This increases organizational exposure, particularly if proper controls are not placed in place to protect against insider-led breaches of security.

In the gig economy, here are three things that you need to know about insider threats.

1. Majority Of Insider Threats Are Accidental

Not all attacks from insiders are malicious. 61 percent of insider attacks are initiated by employee or contractor failures, according to Ponemon. Gig economy employees do not have insight into the security policies of the organization. The cybersecurity policies that relate to their work should be understood by all in the business, including contract employees.

Even so, restrictive policies on cybersecurity are not the response. To ...
... do their work efficiently, mixed teams of workers and contractors need to access cloud-based solutions and other essential systems. Too many limitations will make individuals work around the law, which can lead to even higher risks. Security teams should now concentrate on creating a robust insider threat prevention program.

2. Insider Risks Differ By Role

Without the fixed costs of wages and insurance, contract employees help businesses add skilled expertise. Depending on the agency, as well as the roles and level of access, the risks of such employees can vary. For example, a contractual IT administrator would have access to the most critical databases of the company. If this access is misused, then all sensitive data of the enterprise could be breached.

The particular risks of the contract workforce should be understood by each department. For third parties with privileged access, security teams should be extra cautious. Furthermore, all employees should be aware of security best practices related to their job and obey them.

3. Granular Visibility Into User Behavior And Data Is Key

A comprehensive insider threat prevention program should cover individuals, processes, and technologies. Many of the above guidelines for people and procedures will proactively protect organizations from risk. Organizations need insight into both third-party users and data behavior from a technology perspective. This method helps security teams with:

Understanding the context surrounding the intentions of a user.
Getting to know where the data is moving and why.
Distilling valid signals inside the security warnings from the noise.

Conclusion

Insider threats are a real menace as far as enterprise cybersecurity is concerned. Thankfully, there are data security solutions available that arm enterprises with a wide range of best-in-class security features. These solutions, apart from ensuring comprehensive data security, enable organizations to adhere to mandatory data privacy guidelines also.

Appsian One of the leading ERP data security,compliance,implementation solutions provider that gives organizations to complete control and visibility over their ERP data.