Types of Insiders

There are as many motivations for insider attacks as for external attackers. Traditional insider attacks are often perpetrated by disgruntled employees. Employees might feel threatened by management changes, mergers or acquisitions, downsizing, promotions (or lack thereof), evaluations, personal conflicts with other employees, or almost anything that causes stress in the workplace. A threatened employee is in the perfect position to attack the company from within. These attacks can range from the destruction of systems or data to the theft or sale of confidential information.

Security personnel, including the incident response team, are not immune to these feelings. These personnel are especially dangerous because they have ...

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