Privacy and the Dangerous of Insider Threats in the Public

 You may know of a time when someone leaked personal information to the public. Have you ever thought that the information you were looking at was stolen or used against somebody? Well in fact events like this happen a lot and it could be happening at this very moment. These events are called insider threats. When looking at the insider threat we tend to think of hackers or identity theft. When in fact a lot of the time these insider threats are people employed to a business that accidently or on purpose leak private information within a business. This can cause a lot of turmoil for the business and all the people affected by an insider threat. However, there are ways to prevent this and lower the chances of having an insider threat and here are some ways how to prevent them.

Now there are a couple things that business owners can do to prevent insider threats. One way is to wipe everything that a past employee had access to. For example, if an employee of a company were to stop working for that current company. After they leave within the next couple of days wiping everything, they had access to would prevent a lot of things that could happen after that employee leaves. The things that can be wiped are email accounts, employee active IDs, and any data on the employee’s device that may be connected to the business (Martin). This action is very important and should be done as soon as possible.

As we look at these insider threats people as a whole can counteract any suspicious activity. This leads us to how people just being aware of their surrounding can prevent these threats. Like any business everyone has a key role and has set expectation that regulations that they follow while on the job. With that said monitoring all employees and getting to know each one on a personal level is important. Not only does this provide new friendships, but it makes each employee and employer comfortable and less likely to do something they aren't supposed to be doing. This also allows employers to find out when an employee may be leaving the business and can be on the lookout for possible threats (Martin).

When we talk about these insider threats many people are not aware about who the main people that tend to do these threats. A source from “csoonline” say that these attacks tend to be more likely from permanent staff rather than contractors or other partners with the company. They also added that most insider threats were committed by employees who had been at the company for less than five years. After reading this article it started to make more sense why this statistic is true (Swinhoe). The reasoning is because newer employees tend to be less involved with their heart in a company compared to someone that has been there for a long time. Not only do people that work somewhere for a long time have more respect for the company, but their hearts are more put into the company. For someone that hasn't been at a company for very long their heart is not invested in the company and is more likely to be a threat.

Looking at this situation from a college students’ standpoint the more real it has become. The reason behind this is because as a college student and being in the workplace students are possible threats and are experiencing within their workplace people doing this. With that said everyone is an insider threat and everyone can do just a little to try and prevent them from happening. If that be the employer or the employee looking out for at least one person. Then this threat can be less likely and more likely be prevented in the future.