{"id":14206,"date":"2021-02-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syteca.com\/blog\/en-blog-insider-threat-definition\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T05:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:48:23","slug":"insider-threat-definition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syteca.com\/en\/blog\/insider-threat-definition","title":{"rendered":"What Is an Insider Threat? Definition, Types, and Countermeasures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your employees, business partners, and third-party contractors with legitimate access to your corporate infrastructure may pose significant risks to your cybersecurity. Intentionally or unintentionally, they can destroy or expose your valuable data, thus, putting your organization at risk for non-compliance, financial losses, reputation damage, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to understand what insider threats are and what dangers they may pose to your organization. In this article, we give a detailed definition of insider threats and explore the causes of insider threats. We also discover what a malicious insider is<\/a>, types of risky insiders, insider threat detection techniques<\/a>, and mitigation strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is an insider threat?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An insider threat is a security risk that originates from within your organization. It occurs when your employees, contractors, or business partners misuse their access intentionally or unintentionally, harming your networks, systems, and data. Insider threats may manifest in different ways including negligence, data theft, system sabotage, fraud, and cyber attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An insider threat is a malicious, careless or negligent threat to an organization that comes from people within the organization \u2014 such as employees, former employees, contractors or business associates \u2014 who have inside information concerning the organization\u2019s security practices, data, and computer systems.<\/p>\nGartner\u2019s Market Guide for Insider Risk Management Solutions<\/a> (subscription required)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Another insider threat meaning is proposed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)<\/a>. It defines an insider threat as \u201c<\/em>the potential for an insider to use their authorized access or understanding of an organization to harm that organization.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d This harm may include malicious or unintentional acts that negatively affect the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of your organization\u2019s critical data, personnel, or facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Insider threats are on the rise and pose serious cybersecurity problems for many organizations. According to the 2022 Cost of Insider Threats Global Report by the Ponemon Institute<\/a> [PDF], the frequency of insider threat incidents has increased by 14% in four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the same time, the average annual cost of insider-related incidents increased almost twice as much – from $8.3 million in 2018 to $16.2 million in 2023, according to the 2023 Cost of Insider Risks Global Report by the Ponemon Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides financial losses, organizations suffer from loss of critical data, brand damage, operational disruption, loss of revenue, legal liabilities, and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now, when we\u2019ve discovered what insider threats are and how dangerous they can be, let\u2019s explore what the types of insider threats are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Types of insider threats<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While discussions on the topic are popular among cybersecurity specialists, there is no industry consensus for classifying types of insider threats in cybersecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Market Guide for Insider Risk Management Solutions<\/a> (subscription required), Gartner classifies insider threats according to three types of threat actors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n