New Research Shows Insider Threats are a Major Cyber Security Risk

21 June 2022

Halodata commissioned Spire Research and Consulting to examine insider threats across enterprises in Singapore.

The Insider Threats Survey 2022 found that insider threats are a serious issue, with most of the respondents recognizing that they are vulnerable to attacks and 11% of enterprises experiencing at least one insider attack over the last 12 months. Awareness of insider attacks is increasing, as more than 80% believe that insider attacks are as damaging as external cyberattacks, and 90% believe insider threats are more difficult to mitigate. However, there is a gap in the efforts to combat threats outside of the IT sphere, as 23% revealed that they had no programs to combat insider threats in non-IT departments.

The consensus is that there is a strong need for user monitoring. Almost two-thirds agree that constant monitoring of insider parties will help to detect potential insider attacks, and 99% believe that user monitoring will help to prevent insider threats.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a jump in remote user endpoints within an enterprise, thus increasing the risk of insider threats. Since the start of the pandemic, more than half of the respondents have seen an increase in malicious insider activity, and 70% believe that work-from-home (WFH) arrangements have inflated the risk of insider attacks.

The report also explored how cultural factors might affect strategies. Almost two-thirds of Singaporean enterprises felt that the Asian face value of trust negatively affects the perception of insider threats, making the approach to enterprise security biased. Only 29% of enterprises take a proactive approach to addressing insider threats, and over a third only act after attacks occur.

This news article can be found at PR Newswire, AsiaOne, CIO World Asia, and Yahoo!Finance.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Marie Teo
Manager, Group Corporate Communications
Spire Research and Consulting
Phone: (65) 6838 5355
E-mail: marie.teo@spireresearch.com