Insider threats have become reality for civilian firms such as Tesla, which
experienced sabotage and intellectual property theft, and Capital One,
which suffered from fraud. Even greater social impact was caused by the
data breach at the US Department of Defense, perpetrated by well-known
attackers Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, whose espionage and
hacktivist activities are widely known. The dramatic increase of such
incidents in recent years and the incalculable damage committed by
insiders must serve as a warning for all members of the cyber security
community. It is no longer acceptable to continue to underestimate the
problem of insider threats.'
A present-day example of hostile activity was how threat actors exploited
Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities which initially allowed threat
actors to make authenticated connections to on-premises Microsoft
Exchange Servers from unauthorized external sources. An exploitation of
this magnitude left many businesses and some portions of the US
Government exposed to ransomware attacks and data stolen deemed
important to them. Businesses and the US Government took several steps
outlined by Microsoft to remedy the vulnerability however other
preventative measures that could have been taken is better
communication between vendors and the general public and increased
dissemination of information from the Cyber Unified Coordination Groups
(UCG) of known malware.
Sources:
Mazzarolo G, Jurcut AD. Insider threats in Cyber Security: The enemy
within the gates. 2019. Accessed February 15, 2022. https://search-
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