The landscape of insider risk management continues to evolve rapidly, driven by increasing complexities in IT environments, the adoption of hybrid work models, and the rise in adoption of sophisticated GenAI tools by knowledge workers. This 2024 Insider Threat Report is based on the insights of 413 IT and cybersecurity professionals to capture the latest trends, challenges, and best practices in managing insider threats, providing a comprehensive overview of how organizations are addressing these critical security challenges today.
KEY FINDINGS INCLUDE:
• Rising Frequency and Cost of Attacks: 48% of organizations reported that insider attacks have become more frequent over the past 12 months. Additionally, 51% experienced six or more attacks in the past year, with the average cost of remediation exceeding $1 million for 29% of respondents.
• Drivers of Insider Attacks: The top three drivers behind the surge in insider attacks are complex IT environments (39%), adoption of new technologies (37%), and inadequate security measures (33%), highlighting multifaceted areas of concern that organizations must address.
• Increased Vulnerability Perception: A substantial 71% of organizations feel at least moderately vulnerable to insider threats, indicating heightened awareness and concern over internal risks.
• Unified Visibility and Control: While 93% of respondents consider unified visibility and control across environments to be critically important, only 36% have a fully integrated solution that delivers unified visibility, underscoring the need for more cohesive security strategies.
• Tools Gap: While 50% of respondents have a partially integrated solution, 28% of organizations still rely on limited integration, managing visibility through separate, non-integrated tools, 17% have altogether insufficient tooling, and 20% use disparate systems for monitoring users, applications, and devices, revealing a significant tools gap.
• Obstacles to Implementation: Technical challenges (39%) and cost factors (31%) remain the primary obstacles to implementing effective insider threat management tools, although organizations are increasingly recognizing the ROI of investing in advanced security solutions.
We extend our gratitude to Gurucul for supporting this important research project. Their commitment to advancing insider threat management solutions has made this comprehensive analysis possible. We hope that the insights provided in this report will guide you to enhance your security posture and better protect your organization from insider risks.
