Winning the Battle Against Inside Threats: Actionable Strategies for Safeguarding Critical Data

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NETFORENSICS WHITE PAPER
Winning the Battle Against
Inside Threats: Actionable Strategies
for Safeguarding Critical DataNETFORENSICS WHITE PAPER | Winning the Battle Against IInnssiiddee TThhrreeaattss
Contents
1 Executive Summary
1 The Evolution of Threat Management Strategies
1 The Increasing Problem of Inside Threats
2 In Search of Meaningful Security Data
2 Inside Threats and Their Impact on Regulatory Compliance
2 Managing Perimeter and Insider Threats: A Unified Defense Strategy
3 Ten Proven Strategies for Combating Inside Attacks
3 nFX SIM One and nFX Data One: An Integrated Solution for Safeguarding Important Data
4 A Proactive Approach to Security Management
4 Data Correlation: The Secret Weapon Against Inside Threats
5 Inside Threat: Real-World Scenarios
5 From the Inside: Stealing Confidential Data
5 From the Outside: Hacking In
6 Conclusions
6 ReferencesNETFORENSICS WHITE PAPER | Winning the Battle Against IInnssiiddee TThhrreeaattss
Executive Summary Yet despite the huge investment made in these securityToday's headlines confirm the potential outcomes of ineffective IT technologies, data leakage and inappropriate user activity fromsecurity systems. Companies are suffering serious consequences - inside the enterprise have become a more daunting and often morefrom stolen customer data and intellectual property to powerful complex challenge, forcing organizations to reconsider theirviruses and other malware. Not only are business operations approach to managing risk from the inside.interrupted, but corporate security failures are leading to damagedbusiness reputations, lost revenues, sizeable costs, and often lost jobs Now the challenge of risk management and compliance has shiftedfor individuals held accountable. In addition, increasing privacy and to protecting customer, patient, and other valuable corporate datasecurity regulation presents a complex challenge for organizations and applications at the core - compelling companies to address thethat must secure massive amounts of data, monitor complex explosion of threats that are now originating inside theapplications, and manage large numbers of users. organization. In fact, according to Gartner analyst Richard Hunter,"more than 70 percent of unauthorized access to informationTo manage threats to the enterprise and successfully meet systems is committed by employees, as are more than 95 percent ofcompliance challenges, organizations need a comprehensive intrusions that result in significant financial losses."security strategy that can successfully do battle with inside as wellas outside threats. Today, companies are increasingly leveragingsecurity information management (SIM) solutions to build a clean, The Increasing Problem of Inside Threatsconcise, and manageable process for dealing with the tremendous Inside threats are by some accounts the most difficult securityvolumes of raw security information from disparate devices, threats to resolve. Why? Because identifying the motives of thoseapplications, and databases. With the right SIM solution, this behind interior threats can present particular challenges to securitycorrelated security data can be transformed into actionable security organizations. Individuals sometimes deliberately try to accessintelligence, providing a sound risk management platform while proprietary data, while others inadvertently access and evenhelping companies manage and maintain compliance. unintentionally distribute sensitive information. Additionally, giventhe sheer volume of internal data transactions, prioritizing the real"After calculating the expenses of legal fees, call centers, lost threats without an automated solution is virtually impossible. Theemployee productivity, regulatory fines, stock plummets, and following shows some of the many types of inside threats plaguingcustomer losses, it can be dizzying, if not impossible, to come today's businesses and gives examples of how they are executed.up with a true number.Although studies may not be able todetermine the exact cost of a security breach in your Malicious Activity - Theft or Destruction of Dataorganization, the loss of sensitive data can have a crippling . Identity Theft - An employee accesses and steals informationimpact on an organization's bottom line." such as a customer's social security n... [download for more]