National Insider Threat Awareness Month

September marks the fourth annual National Insider Threat Awareness Month (NITAM). It was launched by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), the National Insider Threat Task Force (NITTF), the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Intelligence and Security, the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security.

NITAM is an annual, month-long campaign to educate government and industry about the risks posed by insider threats and the role of insider threat programs. The campaign seeks to encourage government and private industry employees to recognize and report behaviors of concern, leading to early intervention and positive outcomes for at-risk individuals and reduced risks to organizations.

Don Boxley is CEO and co-founder of DH2i. He said work from home (WFH) led to an exponential increase in cybersecurity attacks, not just from external cybercriminals, but from malicious internal bad actors as well.

“And what makes the internal threat even more dangerous is that many of these bad actors are armed with knowledge of confidential internal security procedures, which adds to their ability to cause serious harm to your organization,” he said. “We saw quite a bit of this at the start of the pandemic when people were first sent home virtually overnight to work. Many organizations were forced to depend upon their VPNs for network access and security, and then learned the hard way that VPNs were not up to the task. It became clear that VPNs simply were not designed or intended for the way we work today. Both external and internal bad actors could, were and are still exploiting inherent vulnerabilities in VPNs. Instead, forward-looking IT organizations have discovered the answer to the VPN dilemma. It is an innovative and highly reliable approach to networking connectivity – the software defined perimeter (SDP). With SDP, organizations can ensure safe, fast and easy network and data access while slamming the door on potential cybercriminals.”