78 percent of companies suffered Insider involved data security breaches

In a recent survey 78% of I.T professionals claimed that their company had suffered unreported insider-related data security breaches. Internal crime is the most guarded secret and is costing billions of pounds to companies. Few organizations will admit this fact openly that there are far more security breaches than those disclosed to the public.

Tony Brown of Glovers, says 80% of the co-operate frauds involves an employee. Over £40m is lost to fraud in the UK alone. About 90% of the fraudulent employees have been with their employer for over a year, and 20% for more than a decade. The insiders like employees, contractors or customers have become the biggest challenge. Insiders have trust and access which make it easy for them to get involved in fraudulent practices related to laptop security or data security breaches and stay undetected for a while. Three areas of concern are fraud, sabotage and data security breach or leakage. Companies pay about 75% of their insurance premiums for employee infidelity. Affordable technology and electronic trading have raised the ceiling of crime, and it has become easier to steal large amounts of money. Moreover mobile devices like laptops which contain huge amount of data can be easily misused or stolen. Jonathan Butcher, deputy active underwriter at Lloyds syndicate Novae, says he has knowledge of an employee infidelity incident which exceeded £50m. Most companies look for fraudsters outside the company, whereas the culprit may be someone inside and whom you trust. Applying Business Intelligence and audit trails of employee activities like where they go in the building, photocopying routines or system access can give a lot of information. Firms need to pay more attention to technology to combat such frauds.

Firms also need to be careful while recruiting staff. Making big claims in the beginning increases expectations and if they are not met the employee may start thinking about sabotage & working for their own means. So it’s better to find a candidate with the right emotional core skills and then train him or her as you cannot reprogram their behavioral tendencies. One of the biggest motivations for fraud, according to Robert Myatt, director at business psychologist Kaisen Consulting, is dissatisfaction. If the job is not meeting their expectations then employees stop making an effort. This employee grievance towards the company might lead to doing things to benefit themselves. Although motives of crimes can be uncovered using forensic tools to detect files containing data of accumulated wealth or online gambling habits, data continue to be highly unsafe when in the hands of dissatisfied employees. Fraudbuster clauses should be included in every employment contract and communicated to the employee at the beginning of their service. Putting a price tag on insider fraud is almost impossible however new technology can help with solutions to curb frauds.