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The rising adoption of digital processes in manufacturing has fundamentally changed how this sector does business. The increased reliance on digitization and network connectivity has sharpened the risks of company data exfiltration, intellectual property damages, and more, especially those stemming from insiders. Insider threat actors operate from a position of trust that allows them to circumvent security and evade detection for months, if not years.

Manufacturing ranks among the top five industries with the highest reported insider breaches and privilege misuse. In Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report, nearly 40% of the cybersecurity incidents in manufacturing traced to insiders, including partners and third-party vendors. The same report outlined 57% of database breaches to an insider within the organization.

According to a CISA report, the manufacturing sector reported the highest number of insider attacks among companies in the critical infrastructure sector. These incidents can be perpetrated by employees of all ranks, contractors, third-party vendors, and partners resulting in severe damages to businesses of all sizes. IBM's annual Insider Threat report estimates the average cost of insider attacks rose by 31% in 2020 to $11.45 million from the previous two years, and the number of insider incidents climbed by 47%.

Insider security breaches in manufacturing are now an impending reality requiring companies to safeguard themselves. This article dives deeper into the dynamics and challenges leading to the rise of insider incidents in manufacturing and ways to mitigate those.

Research data shows insider threat is a dominant risk in the healthcare industry. According to the 2019 Verizon Insider Threat Report, insider threats affected 46% of healthcare organizations. Healthcare is the only industry where insiders were responsible for a higher percentage of breaches than external threat actors (Figure 1). In addition to healthcare staff, contractors, executives, and former employees collectively contribute to the problem.

Social engineering is an insidious way of getting "insider access" into an organization's network and data. Threat actors use it to gain sweeping access to carry out sophisticated attacks while evading detection. This "insider" leeway of social engineering makes it an alarming threat that cybercriminals are routinely exploiting now more than ever.

Remote learning is now an inevitable reality for academic institutions. Even before the pandemic, remote learning was on the rise. The pandemic has only made that trend more pervasive and dominant across institutions, most notably among the public schools.

The Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), a federally funded threat intelligence and cybersecurity advisory organization, recorded a 19% increase in cyberattacks targeting K-12 schools in the 2019-2020 school year. Based on the rising trends of alerts from the academic sector, MS-ISAC projects the number of cybersecurity incidents targeting institutions to jump by 86% in the upcoming academic year.

Nowadays, financial institutions are the custodians of more than just money. They are also keepers of sensitive personal and financial data. As the financial sector leans more towards the cloud and other digital technologies, this data is exposed to cybersecurity threats

October is a month that generates much buzz amongst the cybersecurity community. It’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) – a time when security professionals work around the clock to raise awareness of growing cyber risks amongst general user communities.