Office of Cybersecurity

September is National Insider Threat Awareness Month

Insider Threat is a security risk that come from within an organization. While it can be, it doesn’t necessarily mean the threat is a disgruntled employee. It could be someone socially engineered to do a bad thing, or someone who as access to information they shouldn’t and doesn’t know how to protect it.

Why should we care? – According to the 2019 Verizon Data Bread Investigations Report, 34% of data breaches involve internal actors.

What can we do? – a lot of things!

• Notice odd behavior in coworkers. Are they trying to violate policies or bypass security? Are they disgruntled?
• If  you are a data or system owner, make sure that security controls are in place so that only the people who need access to the data have it, and only at the level they need to do their job (least privilege).
• Monitor access to your data.
• Train staff to adopt a data security mindset.

So now you are thinking about our campus and organization. Think beyond that.

What if the insider threat was to your family and your child is the one being socially engineered to give away a password or access to the “home” computer that has banking information on it?

What if the insider threat was a member of your church committee that has access to funds to help your charity organizations?

Best Practices Videos

The Office of Cybersecurity serves as fundamental technical safeguard for UTHSC. We promote an environment of great ethical standards and observe numerous regulatory risks by:

• Advancing effective ways to prevent security risk through collaboration
• Educating employees and the student body about information security
• Identifying security risks faced by the University.
• Encouraging an ethical environment that encourages information security preventions
• Promoting awareness of information security through outreaching events
• Effective training in the numerous areas of information security
• Providing a workplace that enables employees to participate in the compliance program without fear of retribution.

Our Team