Page 81 - Cyber Defense eMagazine forJune 2021

How Can You Protect the Security Perimeter When the

Threat is Already Inside?

By Jon Ford, Managing Director, Mandiant Professional Services

Legitimate access rules the cyber landscape. Every adversary wants it, and every employee has it. The
increasing number of malicious insider incidents is particularly troubling for organizations of all sizes
because insiders are, by definition, those we trust most. Malicious insider events impact organization
reputation, customer trust and investor confidence. Organizations across industries have faced the rapid
rise of malicious and negligent insider threats during the pandemic, resulting in corporate and economic
espionage, data theft, digital extortion, backup destruction, accidental leaks and more. Forrester predicts
that this trend is here to stay and that 33 percent of data breaches in 2021 will be insider threat related.

At Mandiant, a part of FireEye, we have investigated a growing number of malicious insider threat
incidents during the shift to remote work, especially in organizations with open trust models. For the
organization, these attacks are difficult to detect and prevent without risk-aligned investments. For the
malicious insider, the outcomes have a significant probability of success with a low cost to execute.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – June 2021 Edition 81
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