Have I got news for you!
Nigerian scammers are at it again – this time hyper targeting unhappy employees, offering them up to one million dollars to install ransomware onto their company computers. Employers listen up, as this problem is more real than you think.
When an employee intentionally sabotages their employer it’s called Insider Threat. This may include stealing private company files, intellectual property, customer information, credit card and bank account numbers, then using this info to run to their next employer or even setting up shop to compete against the company!
Nigerian scammers have just figured out another way to capitalize on your unhappy employees, by offering them up to 1 million dollars in untraceable bitcoin if they install software that successfully encrypts your company’s machines and holds them for ransom.
An inside job you say?! You bet! What can you do about it? A whole lot!
While virtually every person will experience stressful events, most do so without resorting to disruptive or destructive acts. For those insiders that turn to malicious activity, researchers have found that the acts are rarely spontaneous. Instead, they are usually the result of a deliberate decision to act.
Have a look at this chart from CISA, the national cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency:
What you’re seeing here is the journey that an employee takes to becoming a threat to the company. Along this road, the employee’s personal predispositions and background could make them susceptible to the temptation of doing a malicious action. This predisposition can interact with stress from their personal lives and inside of your professional environment, eventually leading to threat, crime and disaster.
There are some great resources on CISA’s website: http://cisa.gov/detecting-and-identifying-insider-threats
Be sure to review your employee security awareness training program to make sure employees know how to spot an insider threat in your company before it becomes a problem. Need help with that, feel free to reach out, we can help!
I’m Attila from Cylanda, stay safe out there.