Ways to Mitigate Insider Threats Using Privileged Access Management

Cybersecurity threats are among the leading problems faced by the business world today. A strong barrier must be built around the critical data of companies' business models and their employees, subject to cyberattacks at any time. This barrier ensuring data security should also be fully operational against internal malfeasance or misuse. In other words, insider threats play one of the most critical roles among all cybersecurity threats.

The Role of Authorized Accounts in Insider Threats

Insider authorized accounts are the leading threats that need to be checked in the event of data breaches. Authorized users can perform many transactions on company data depending on their privileged access rights, and can expose your company to cyberattacks if not subject to various advanced security protocols. Successfully implementing such protocols and not leaving any gaps that can lead to access security breaches has a direct effect on both the long-term success and the companies’ financial statements. This is because the loss associated with a data breach resulting from an insider threat causes companies to face serious negative financial consequences.

The Zero Trust and Least Privilege Methodologies

IT departments and cybersecurity teams in charge of ensuring your information security should protect authorized accounts and keep track of all the steps they take during the process of privileged access. While doing so, the Zero Trust and Least Privilege methodologies are among the most functional options for teams to implement and inspect privileged access and ensure high levels of data security.

Zero Trust

Contrary to popular belief, Zero Trust is not a security program or a data security application. In its simplest terms, Zero Trust refers to a strategic data security approach that has been developed from the “Never trust, always verify” moto and is based on the principle that companies should not trust any digital asset inside or outside the network. This security policy is based on the principle that all digital items attempting to connect to the company network should be verified before being granted data access.

The most important benefit of the Zero Trust methodology is its ability to stand against insider threats as well. Containing many processes that require verification and authorization approval, a Zero Trust policy considerably mitigates potential data breaches resulting from insider threats. Zero Trust keeps access under control by using features such as centralized password management, authorized session management, and multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Least Privilege

The Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) is a discipline that allows companies to effectively restrict access to company data. The PoLP offers a versatile data security approach that covers not only third-party service providers or employees who wish to access the company network, but also virtual users such as database services.

Least Privilege plays a significant role in identifying and preventing insider threats and is based on determining the users who will have privileged access to data, and the access levels of such users. Using PoLP allows for the creation of profiles similar to standard accounts, privileged accounts, or shared accounts and defining different authorization levels for each profile. Potential cyber threats resulting particularly from insider threats (malware, rootkit, identity theft) can thus be easily averted.

You are highly likely to be exposed to various insider threats unless you implement these cybersecurity approaches in your company. Note that you could incur substantial losses, both financial and in terms of the sustainability of your business in the event of insider threats, data breaches, or credentials being leaked to third parties. In fact, according to the “31 Crucial Insider Threat Statistics: 2021 Latest Trends & Challenges” report by FinancesOnline, which brings together data from various sources, 61% of companies faced at least one insider threat in 2020. Also, insider threats were the source of 60% of the data leaked by companies in the same year.

The report states that 55% of the cyberattacks caused by insider threats are motivated by fraud, 49% by financial gains and 44% by IP theft. 63% of insider threats are caused by IT employees with privileged access, while 60% of the managers with access rights to sensitive data create insider threats.

On the other hand, 71% of the data breaches resulting from insider threats are caused by unintentional faults. 63% percent of such breaches result from employee negligence and 61% from malicious attempts. Finally, the average financial loss caused by insider threats in 2020 is $11,45 million and the total amount spent by organizations in the financial sector against insider threats is $14,5 million.

Privileged Access Management

In addition to using the Zero Trust and Least Privilege methodologies, it is also very important that you use applications that are compatible with such methodologies to always verify and monitor users who access sensitive data, protect credentials, provide real-time surveillance, keep session logs, and securely store passwords with passwords vaults.

This is where Privileged Access Management (PAM) steps in. You can use PAM to easily implement all these privileged access features and eliminate potential insider threats against your company.

Single Connect, Kron’s Privileged Access Management solution, controls all authorized sessions on the network through its Authorized Session Manager module. It manages sessions with privileged access on the network using Centralized Password Management. It also prevents ill-intentioned employees from sharing passwords thanks to its password vault feature.

Single Connect uses Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to secure access to critical assets with time and location verification, making it easier to detect insider threats. The Dynamic Data Masking and Database Access Manager features log all operations of the users on the system, including database managers. Privileged Task Automation (PTA) eliminates potential data breaches caused by unintentional employee faults by automating routine tasks on the network.

Considered as one of the leading PAM solutions in the world by the Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management 2020 report published by Gartner, our Single Connect platform features everything you need to prevent insider threats.

Single Connect complies with all the principles of Privileged Access Management and successfully implements them through its advanced modules, acting as a unique barrier against insider threats with the help of its multi-layer security infrastructure. With their various functions, the modules within Single Connect control privileged access (TACACS+ / RADIUS Access Management, Centralized Password Management, Authorized Session Manager, Dynamic Data Masking, Two-Factor Authentication, and Privileged Task Automation) and can easily prevent insider threats.

Contact us for further information on insider threats and how to mitigate them using Single Connect and maximize data security in your company.