In mid-May 2017 unprecedented global hacks brought organisations
including the NHS, Telefónica and FedEx to a
standstill. Incidents such as this ensure that the
public focus is firmly fixed on attacks by faceless criminal third
parties. However when it comes to the protection of vital
corporate and client data organisations must also recognise the
risks much closer to home, posed by their own personnel.
IBM's "2016 Cyber Security Intelligence Index" found
that 60% of all attacks were carried out by insiders. Three
quarters of these attacks were malicious, with the remainder
involving reckless or inadvertent breaches by employees. It
may be necessary to think again about how we tackle cybercrime,
given the potential business ramifications, financial, reputational
and operational.
