Could you be an unintentional insider threat

September is National Insider Threat Awareness Month.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency defines insider threat as one in which an insider uses their authorized access, wittingly or unwittingly, to do harm to the department's mission, resources, personnel, facilities, information, equipment, networks or systems. This threat can manifest as damage to the department through the following insider behaviors:

• Espionage
• Unauthorized disclosure of information
• Workplace violence
• Intentional or unintentional loss or degradation of departmental resources or capabilities

You could become a unintentional insider threat without malicious intent through negligence or by accident.

Negligence - An insider of this type exposes an organization to a threat through carelessness. Negligent insiders are generally familiar with security and/or IT policies but choose to ignore them, creating risk for the organization. Examples include allowing someone to "piggyback" through a secure entrance point, misplacing or losing a portable storage device containing sensitive information and ignoring messages to install new updates and security patches.

Accidental - An insider of this type mistakenly causes an unintended risk to an organization. Examples include mistyping an email address and accidentally sending a sensitive business document to a competitor, unknowingly or inadvertently clicking on a hyperlink, opening an attachment in a phishing email that contains a virus or improperly disposing of sensitive documents.

If you find that you or a coworker may have accidentally become an insider threat, it is important that you report this immediately by contacting your local security representative, or you can submit a report to Defense Logistics Agency's Insider Threat Program. These reports are confidential and can be submitted to [email protected].

For DLA Land and Maritime employees who have questions or concerns, you can contact the local DLA Intelligence office: Patricia L. Murphy or Jerry Minchew.

For more information, employees with Common Access Card access can visit the agency's new Insider Threat Program SharePoint site and learn about DLA's Insider Threat Program.