How businesses reduce the risk from insider threats

New research from Computing reveals what firms do to reduce the risks of certain types of threat

Staff training is the most popular method enterprises use to reduce the risk of insider threats.

This is one of the results of the latest research from Computing into cloud security challenges.

When asked 'What steps do you take to reduce insider threat', 73 per cent of respondents said 'Training', ahead of 'Services and application whitelisting with 55 per cent of the vote (respondents could select more than one answer).

USB blocking was the next most common response with 52 per cent of respondents selecting it, ahead of frequent audits with 49 per cent, and encouraging whistleblowing with 32 per cent.

Just over 100 UK-based IT leaders at medium to large organisations took part in the survey.

When asked 'Do you allow data to downloaded onto unmanaged devices', most firms responded positively, with only 10 per cent saying 'never'.

This is likely to be because most fear the productivity losses more than the risks presented by malicious insiders.

Just under 40 per cent of respondents said that they only allow data to be downloaded onto unmanaged devices 'in some circumstances', with 17 per cent selecting 'rarely', and 12 per cent simply saying 'yes'.

In a similar vein of the increasing lack of control IT has over corporate networks, only 19 per cent of respondents felt that they were aware of all cloud-based applications connecting to their organisation's networks.

Just under a third, at 29 per cent, said they are aware of under 70 oer cent of such applications, with eight per cent admitting that they have no idea.

These issues, and many more will be discussed at Computing's next IT Leaders Forum on Wednesday 18th October at County hall in Central London: Tackling the latest cloud security challenges.

Attendance is free to qualifying end users, register now to guarantee your place.