2020 is indeed a year of nightmares, started with Australian bushfire, the year took a different turn with a global pandemic. As these were unprecedented times for individuals, families, and organizations, immediate steps were taken to contain the spread of disease, more and more people were forced to work from home without having a proper security model in place.

Now, it's been almost 7 months, and with new adapted changes, employees have started to make their way back to work, making it an appropriate time to conduct the insider risk security control check-up. Whether you believe it or not, the pandemic lockdown was a sudden shock for organizations as many of them were unprepared to shift the workforce to work from home and hence, failed to strengthen Identity and access management (IAM), bringing a great risk to their cybersecurity posture. But the worst is over, right? Can we go back to normal? Not so fast.

It is time to learn about loosen strings

Generally, the insider threats come from the people who work as an employee or contractor in your organization. They belong to your facility, which means they have accounts and direct access in your network along with all the critical information on-board. On top of this, what makes them vulnerable is how much information about your organization they already have under their wings- they know about your network administrator, applications you use, and vendors you work with. For a malicious hacker, any of this information is enough to break into the system and clear all your database, and don't forget most of the employees were working on their systems that were far from your security range.

So, what needs to be done? Well, in addition to addressing how employees have spent their remote working in casual attires, you need to focus on the fact of how far your employees have relaxed their cybersecurity practices over the last couple of months.

Renew security awareness

Proper and frequent training is the key to mitigating the risk of an insider breach. One of the applied and proven methods to renew security awareness and practices is by constantly reminding and training your employees. Reinforce their understanding of social media use within the office hours or premises. Caution employees who are trusted with access to the vital company sources that sharing any internal information with third-party under any circumstances is unacceptable. Through weekly or monthly sessions, explain why security procedures are extremely important for the organization's safety. Make everything interesting and engaging to keep employees intact.

Pay attention to behavior Indicators

While most of you would be busy focusing upon the technical indicators to Identity and eliminate the odds of inside risk concerns, don't overlook the human behavior indicators, which are equally important in the game of insider attack. The work from home was like a dream come true for some employees, and hence, moving back to the old environment and 9 to 5 hours from relaxed work attire can increase the stress, which may cause a sudden behavior change. 

Employees can express increased stress levels and even feel resentment at coming back to the office for work. These small post-pandemic changes in their normal behavior can increase the concerns over their performance at work. The management needs to pay attention to these changes and come up with appropriate guidance and solutions to subside these behavior indicators before it causes any security threat. 

Technical indicators in the workspace

You need to have the cybersecurity professionals in your team to identify and eliminate the technical risks that usually come with employees working from home. Technical indicators such as email content, message to an external address, larger attachments with email, and increased cadence that indicate insider threat need to be addressed to mitigate the risk of a cyber breach and data theft. 

As insider threats can be so much challenging to detect, it is crucial to understand which indicators to look for. Things have changed in the last 6 to 7 months, and there might be the possibility that an employee wants to steal critical information from the database before moving to your competitors. Having the right team of cybersecurity experts at your side will make sure that your data is safe and secure from any sort of internal theft. 

Devil in disguise can destroy your business

The term insider includes- everyone who has direct access to your network, counting your employees, contractors, and trusted business partners since they even have minor details about the organization's networks, facilities, and systems. Unlike being a pawn in the cyber game, they are the turn cloaks who can destroy the crumble up the entire security posture within a few seconds. Keeping an eye on the activity of your partner is crucial to protect your organization from falling into the pit hole of an insider attack. 

Conclusion: don't underestimate the potential for cyber hackers

While you may not find all the indicators at your organization, it gives a brief glimpse at the potential inside risk you may face once your employees return back to the 9 to 5 work environment. We need to comprehend that insider risks should be determined under the assistance of cybersecurity professionals as a single indicator out of context can lead to an incorrect conclusion. The web portals are constantly changing the landscape of cyberthreats. Protecting your organizational information is now more than ever- as employees are returning back to the workplace with potential threats under their sleeves. Underestimating the potential for cyber hackers is the last thing you need to do right now.