How to Spot and Stop Insider Threats to Your Digital Assets

Creating firewalls and securing the cloud are essential steps to preventing unauthorized access to your data. But what if the greatest digital threat logs in with your company email?  

Most digital security plans focus on external attackers, but insider threats to digital assets can be just as dangerous. Whether it’s an employee who falls for a phishing scam or a disgruntled staff member looking to cause harm, insider threats are a growing concern for organizations of all sizes. 

Even with strong technical defenses, your company's security can still be compromised without proper access control measures that prevent insider threats to digital assets. In this guide, you’ll learn how insider threats work, why they’re so harmful, and how to prevent them. 

Understanding Insider Threats to Your Digital Assets 

Not all cyberattacks come from outsiders. In fact, according to a Cybersecurity Insider's report, 83% of organizations reported insider attacks in 2024. Some insider threats are motivated by financial gain or resentment, while others happen due to a lack of training or experience.  

Many digital insider threats are unintentional and result from ignorance or honest mistakes. They happen in many contexts, including:  

• Carelessly sharing files 
• Working on sensitive projects or data at home 
• Losing unsecured work devices, such as phones, tablets, or laptops 
• Sending unsecured links
• Giving contractors too much access  

 However, intentional and malicious insider threats are also a major risk. They come in forms like: 

• Exfiltrating data
• Former team members using active login credentials 
• Stealing product designs or source code and selling it to competitors
• Sabotaging IT systems 
• Manipulating accounting systems for personal gain 

The shift to remote work, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies, and shared cloud-based environments has made things even more complex. Without proper access control security, a single laptop or mobile device can become the gateway to an employee data breach. These evolving workplace norms expand the surface area for attack, making robust data loss prevention more critical than ever. 

Learn more about how insider threats pose a risk to your physical security here -->

Who’s Most Likely to Pose aN Insider Threat? 

Not every insider threat is malicious, but the result is the same: it puts your organization and customers at risk. While every employee, vendor, and contractor has the potential to become an insider threat, some are more likely to compromise your systems:  

• IT staff with administrative access: IT staff often require extensive access to perform their jobs effectively. However, if they go rogue, there can be severe consequences due to their level of access.  
• Sales or marketing teams: Sales teams usually handle a lot of client data. Emails, contracts, and client information are a common source of employee data breaches, especially for disgruntled workers who leave to work for a competitor.  
• Contractors and remote workers: These workers only need temporary access, but lapses in access control security might mean they have credentials far longer than they should.  

Key Digital Assets at Risk 

Organizations are increasingly relying on digital assets to keep operations running smoothly. Insider threats put many of your assets at risk, including:  

• Customer information: Names, emails, billing details, and more can be stolen or leaked, opening the door to lawsuits and compliance fines. 
• Intellectual property: Insiders can copy or steal trade secrets, product roadmaps, and proprietary systems in seconds.
• Financial data: One click can compromise information about payroll, invoicing, or internal audits. 
• Internal communications: From Slack to email, leaked conversations can damage trust, morale, and reputation.  

Without a robust data loss prevention strategy in place, these digital assets are exposed to both careless mistakes and calculated abuse. 

What Makes Insider Threats So Dangerous? 

Unlike outside attackers, insiders don’t have to break into your systems. With legitimate credentials and privileged access, insiders can move through systems unnoticed, which makes them uniquely dangerous. 

Some insiders use valid credentials to get in, while others may exploit:  

• Team members’ trust 
• Weak passwords
• Outdated permissions  

Employee data breaches are an increasingly common problem. In 2022, a Yahoo employee stole source code and took it to a competitor. More recently, outside hackers bribed some Coinbase employees to steal customer data, which they held at ransom for $20 million.  

Whether it’s a disgruntled ex-employee who steals client lists, an intern accidentally sharing confidential files, or remote employees who save sensitive documents to unsecured devices, insider threats can compromise your operations. 

Because these actions often look like normal activity, they can slip past traditional security tools. That’s why cybersecurity insider threat strategies must go beyond malware and firewalls. Your strategy needs proactive people management, permission auditing, and strong data loss prevention protocols to prevent insider threats.  

How to Detect and Prevent Insider Threats to Your Digital Assets 

Mitigating a cybersecurity insider threat starts with visibility and control. Follow these cyber hygiene best practices to reduce the odds of insider threats to digital assets.  

Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC) 

One of the most effective ways to minimize an insider threat is to implement role-based access controls. This strategy ensures employees only have access to the information and systems necessary for their job, and nothing more.  

By assigning permissions based on role rather than individual discretion, you reduce the chance of accidental exposure or intentional misuse. It also simplifies onboarding by tying permissions to job titles, rather than a patchwork of one-off access grants. 

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) 

Modern data loss prevention tools are essential for identifying and stopping risky behavior before it leads to a breach. These tools scan for unusual activity, such as mass downloads, unauthorized file sharing, or attempts to email sensitive documents outside the organization. Whether you’re protecting customer records or internal IP, DLP systems add a layer of automated defense that’s always watching. 

User Behavior Analytics (UBA) 

UBA tools use machine learning to establish a baseline of what’s typical for each employee and then flag deviations. For example, if someone in finance suddenly accesses engineering files late at night, UBA will raise a red flag. This kind of contextual insight helps you detect a cybersecurity insider threat early. 

Audit and Permission Reviews 

Even the most secure access policy won’t stay effective forever. That’s why regular audits and permission reviews are critical. These reviews help identify outdated accounts, over-permissioned users, or ghost access still assigned to former contractors. By scheduling routine access reviews, you reinforce your access control security and keep your digital environment clean, current, and less vulnerable to internal misuse. 

Employee Training 

Ongoing training in cyber hygiene, which should cover topics like phishing awareness, password management, secure device use, and acceptable data handling, is key to preventing accidental employee data breaches. Training should be part of onboarding, but you should also revisit it throughout the year to keep security top of mind and aligned with emerging threats. 

Structured Onboarding and Offboarding  

Many insider threats stem from poor transitions, especially when employees are onboarded or offboarded too casually. Building accountability into these processes involves creating detailed checklists that outline who gets access to what, how that access is tracked, and how quickly it's revoked when no longer needed. From assigning secure logins on day one to ensuring full deactivation on a team member’s last day, a thoughtful process minimizes gaps that insiders can exploit. 

What to Ask Your Security Provider 

Some companies have internal IT departments for managing basic threats, but they often lack the resources and expertise to detect employee data breaches. Partnering with an experienced security provider helps you scale up quickly, putting years of expertise to work for your organization and fixing security issues in potentially less time.  

Still, it’s important to vet security providers carefully. Ask potential vendors these questions to assess their capabilities:  

• Can you help build a least-privilege access model? A trusted provider should help you implement access control security that limits permissions based on roles, reducing the chances of an insider threat to digital assets. 
• Do you offer insider threat detection tools or monitoring services? Look for providers that provide data loss prevention tools, user monitoring, or behavior analytics to flag suspicious activity before it escalates into an employee data breach. 
• Do you provide digital forensics in the event of a breach? If the worst happens, your provider should be able to conduct a full investigation to determine how the breach occurred, what was accessed, and how to prevent it in the future. 

When Access Becomes a Liability 

Not all cyberattacks come from outside your firewalls. In fact, some potential risks are already inside your network, logging in daily with trusted credentials. Whether it’s negligence, poor cyber hygiene, or malicious intent, an insider threat can undermine even the strongest defenses.  

A modern, resilient cybersecurity posture must include strong access control security, proactive data loss prevention, employee education, and consistent oversight. Building a culture of accountability, trust, and digital safety ensures you stay ahead of the increasingly common and expensive issue of insider threats to digital assets. These internal changes can help you shore up security, but relying on an external security expert will help you identify blind spots and avoid the expensive damage of insider attacks.  

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