While external attacks from state-sponsored hackers grab headlines, a growing concern for organizations of all sizes hits closer to home. Insider threats include any malicious or negligent activity by a trusted individual, such as an employee or business partner, who has authorized access to an organization’s systems and data.  

These threats can take various forms, including data breaches, intellectual property theft, sabotage, and fraud. The ramifications can be devastating, leading to financial losses, reputational damage, and operational disruption. 

According to the 2022 Cost of Insider Threats: Global Report, insider threat incidents have skyrocketed by 44% in just two years, with a significant portion (56%) attributed to employee or contractor negligence, such as unsecured devices, failure to install patches, and non-compliance with company security policies.  While less frequent, incidents driven by criminal intent (26%) and compromised credentials (18%) also pose a significant risk. And the remediation costs are astronomical. On average, companies with less than 500 employees spend $8.13 million per incident and those with over 75,000 shell out more than $22 million. 

Relying on traditional methods like log analysis and rule-based systems is no longer effective. They are time-consuming to maintain, generate a high volume of false positives, and fall short when it comes to identifying the nuanced behaviors indicative of insider threats. An insider threat prevention program is an excellent place to start, but not the end of the conversation. 

The Power of AI and Machine Learning 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are the MVPs in insider threat detection. These technologies leverage complex algorithms to process vast amounts of data, including millions of daily security events.  

At the heart of this capability is anomaly detection – algorithms that work to identify potential security risks. They sift through the noise of daily operations, analyzing numerous data points to establish a baseline of “normal” activity. Once this baseline is established, the algorithms can then flag any behavior that deviates from this norm and use statistical models, ML techniques, and predictive analytics to assess risk levels and escalate genuine threats.  

For example, AI can identify unusual data access attempts, such as an employee in the sales department suddenly trying to retrieve highly confidential finance files unrelated to their role. It can spot unauthorized downloads, especially large data transfers that occur at odd hours or through unapproved applications. Even slight changes in user habits, like frequent logins from different locations, can be detected by these intelligent systems. 

However, not all unusual actions indicate an insider threat; a sick employee could be innocently working from home. AI excels at discerning the context and intent behind actions, which is crucial for distinguishing between false alarms and legitimate threats. It can correlate disparate events across the network to reveal a comprehensive picture of a user’s behavior, enabling security teams to respond to actual threats with speed and accuracy. 

The Benefits of AI-powered Insider Threat Detection 

For security leaders, a striking dichotomy is at play: on one hand, there is a pronounced scarcity of skilled security professionals, leaving many businesses struggling to fill critical roles; on the other, the relentless demand for progress in security measures is relentless. This gap underscores the compelling need for AI as a strategic investment, offering a sophisticated solution that can bridge the divide between the shortage of human expertise and the rigorous expectations for advancing cybersecurity defenses. 

Let’s look at some of the most powerful benefits of AI: 

Improved Precision and Efficiency in Threat Detection: When it comes to AI-powered insider threat detection algorithms, precision is the name of the game. No human or team can match AI’s ability to analyze billions of data points in real-time and accurately identify patterns and anomalies. As a result, organizations can trust that the AI-generated alerts they receive indicate real threats that need to be investigated and responded to without delay.  

Reduced False Positives and Alerts: The constant barrage of false positives can lead to alert fatigue and potentially missing critical threats. AI-powered systems can determine the intent behind actions, differentiating between a well-meaning employee working late and a malicious insider. Rather than wasting time and resources on false positives, teams can streamline their efforts and put energy towards critical alerts. 

Proactive Identification of Potential Threats Before They Escalate: Perhaps the most compelling benefit of AI-powered threat detection is its proactive nature. Unlike traditional systems that react to incidents after they occur, AI can detect subtle changes that may indicate the first stages of a threat, allowing organizations to intervene early, saving the company a small fortune; incidents contained within 30 days average $11 million while those that took over 90 days cost $17 million.  

It’s Time to Embrace AI and ML-Driven Security 

In a perfect world, external threat actors would be the only concern; every employee and partner would be completely trustworthy, and mistakes would never happen. Unfortunately, that isn’t reality – disgruntled employees exist in every business, and humans are fallible. 

Organizations must be prepared to fight against insider threats (and all threats!), which demands a layered security strategy in which AI-powered detection plays a pivotal role.  

CYREBRO’s MDR solution leverages cutting-edge ML to transform raw data from diverse sources into actionable insights through our proprietary security data lake, built in collaboration with and hosted on Google Cloud’s secure infrastructure. This powerful combination enables our MDR to ingest, normalize, and analyze a wider range of data than any other MDR provider. Our engine prioritizes and refines detection accuracy, providing detailed attack narratives and clear, actionable remediation steps. Not only does this empower security teams to make informed decisions and respond to potential threats quickly, but it also paints a more comprehensive picture of an organization’s security posture. 

The future is not some distant point down the road. It’s here, and the time to invest in security is now. Delaying the inevitable could cost you millions – millions that could have been invested in driving business forward.