Why Simulating an Insider Attack Is Important??
The importance of assessing an organization’s vulnerability to attack from the inside is virtually self-evident. With the exception of the very small company, hired employees are essentially strangers a company pays to perform a task. Even when background checks are performed and references are checked, there is simply no guarantee that the people tasked with handling and processing sensitive data won’t steal or misuse it. The higher the privilege level of the user, the more trust that is placed in that person and the more risk that is incurred by the company. For this reason, companies often spend a significant amount of money on security controls and processes designed to control access to their information assets and IT infrastructure.
Unfortunately, most companies do not test these same systems and processes unless they are in a regulated industry such as banking or they’ve been the victim of an insider attack. Even worse, many companies assign the task of testing the controls to highly privileged employees, who actually pose the greatest risk. In order for an organization to truly understand how vulnerable it is to an attack by an insider, it must have an independent third party test its internal controls.
