Your organization’s security posture is only as strong as your least secure — or least scrupulous — employee. All it takes is an IT professional forgetting to apply a patch, a manager sending sensitive data to the wrong person, or an angry systems administrator selling your intellectual property to set your business back millions of dollars.
Neglecting to invest in preventative security is one of the most expensive decisions your business can make. And if you think insider attacks or leaks won’t happen to you, think again — the average organization experiences three to four insider security incidents every year, and the average cost of remediation is $450,000 per incident.
That means that employees cost their businesses $1.5 million per year in security cleanup, on average. If that number doesn’t scare you, consider the millions of dollars in fines and possible prison sentences you’ll be exposed to if you run afoul of GLBA, or the penalties and fallout from HIPAA violations.
Let’s take a look at the size of the threat, the legal and financial consequences of insider security attacks, and ways you can prevent potential financial ruin with proactive measures.
