teissTalk: Tracking your joiners, movers and leavers (JMLs) in the world of hybrid work

teissTalk host Jenny Radcliffe was joined by Sarah Norman-Clarke, Head of Information and Cyber Security, Department for Transport as lead guest; Ian Lowe, Head of Industry Solutions, Okta; and Alain De Maght, Chief Information Security Officer & Data Protection Officer, Hôpitaux Iris Sud - Iris Ziekenhuizen Zuid

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According to an article in the Infosecurity Magazine, based on the analysis of 6,800 incidents, homeworking has driven a 44% surge in insider threat, as well as a 34% increase in associated costs. WFH involves employees getting more remote access to sensitive data, which they often take with themselves when leaving the organisation.  The problem isn’t helped by the fact that an insider incident takes 85 days on average to contain. Some in the audience were of the opinion that the language of insider threat shouldn’t be used to hide poor practices that have been normalised by the rush to enable remote working. The Businesses at work report has, for example, revealed that apps used in a corporate environment are often not connected in the right way and there is no end user policy in place. Moreover, a maturing dark web means that stolen data is easier to sell. Regular checks which are routine in a physical office are impossible to carry out in a hybrid environment, therefore policy breaches and compromised wi-fi networks often go undetected. Security culture has always been a weak link and organisations should from time-to-time step back and assess their processes to see if they follow good practice. Implementing a Zero Trust framework, where no one is trusted just because they have a certain role, is a great way of dealing with insider threat. The focus should be on identity management and not on managing how individuals get access to the corporate system.