The Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX) has released a set of guidelines for agencies to identify insider threats to security.

The agency believes that being on alert for inappropriate activity by employees can help deter some potential security threats. According to research, 80% of American spies demonstrated one or more of the listed behaviors of security concern before engaging in espionage.

Patterns of behavior to watch for in employees are “suitability issues” related to problems outside work, “information mishandling”, and “computer misuse” including:

• drug or alcohol abuse
• Repeated irresponsibility
• An “above the rules” attitude
• Financial trouble
• Life or career crises
• Unauthorized contact with the media
• Unauthorized duplication of data
• Discussing classified information on a non-secure phone
• Accessing databases without authorization
• Destruction of information

Indicators of “potential espionage” include:

• Unexplained increase in wealth
• Unusual interest in information outside job scope
• Odd work hours
• Taking classified material home
• Unreported contact with foreign nationals
• Attempting to gain access to information

Employees with high security clearances need to be particularly overseen, and presentation of these behaviors should be taken more seriously.

Via Zero Day Tags: insider threats, espionage, data theft, employee security, security threat, data breach, spy