Many Data Breaches Happen Due to Inside Jobs

For the past years, data breaches are becoming norms than exceptions. Breach Level Index revealed more than 14 billion data records had been stolen or lost since 2013.

That means every day, businesses lose an average of 5 million records. That’s about 68 breached data records per second. These cybercrimes are expensive—in fact, too costly for many businesses. By 2021, this will balloon to $6 trillion a year. That’s double the amount in 2015.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that about 60% of small companies eventually shut down after an attack, according to Hiscox. Prevention, they say, is always better than cure. That also applies when it comes to cybersecurity. The problem is people have one critical wrong idea about a data breach.

A lot picture these criminals to be in far-flung countries, using hi-tech tools to decrypt passwords. In reality, many of these data breaches are inside jobs.

How Common Are Inside Jobs?

One of the best defenses against cybercrimes and data breaches is archiving solutions. These refer to a technology that freezes or screenshots various sites and apps. These can include social media, instant messengers, etc.

These facts will become valuable during auditing, investigation, and even litigation. They also send a stern warning to anyone who thinks of stealing information. Why? Because inside jobs do happen, and sadly, they can damage your reputation and cost a lot of money.

In 2015, about 60% of the cyberattacks occurred due to insiders with either malicious or inadvertent intents. That’s according to an infographic by the Center for Internet Security. About 78% of the organizations, meanwhile, confessed they experienced a breach because of a negligent or malicious employee.
Various industries are not immune to inside jobs. Take, for example, the case of Malindo, an Asian budget airline. In September 2019, the airline confirmed a data breach that affected over 30 million records. The culprit: two former employees of their e-commerce contractor.

These employees stole the records and sold them on the dark web for weeks before the airline discovered the leak. None other than Trend Micro, a cybersecurity and defense company, experienced a data breach in November. It exposed less than a percent of its subscribers. But the company has around 120,000 of its customers around the globe.

They’re Not Equal

Not all inside jobs are the same. Others might be accidental. For example, an employee accessed a secure site in a coffee shop with poor WiFi security. One must not discount the fact, though, a lot have criminal intent. Clearswift once reported in 2015 that 25% of employees were willing to sell data for no more than $8,000. Even 3% of them would do so for only $155.

The Trend Micro data breach occurred because an employee sold the information to tech support scammers. A data breach, no matter how small, can hurt you in many places. It leads to profit loss, lower consumer confidence, public backlash, and even litigation.

It’s time for companies to pay attention to it and prevent it from happening at all costs.