Stay vigilant for insider threat indicators

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, UNITED STATES

04.01.2019

Story by Christopher Allbright 

Defense Finance and Accounting Service

You may have heard about a new focus in DFAS and the Department of Defense called "the insider threat ,mission." This focus stems from cases involving names such as Army Private Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Robert Hanssen, Aldrich Ames, Walter Myers, Ana Montes, Aaron Alexis and Nidal Hasan who used their access to steal information and harm people.

The effort to combat insider threats has been going on for many years to stop bad people from accessing information, facilities or resources to steal, compromise or destroy DoD resources. The goal of the insider threat program is to prevent, deter, detect and mitigate the threat insiders may pose to DFAS and DoD installations, sites, facilities, personnel, missions or resources.

People who act in harmful ways may have predispositions or stressors from personal, financial or professional issues; and in some cases are just careless or clumsy with classified or personally identifiable information.

"Most people are honest, do their jobs and go home," said Jeffery Whitaker of Force Protection. "Every once in a while, though, you come across someone who may feel tempted to cut corners or unwittingly violates a policy or rule that exposes PII/FOUO or classified information to someone who is not authorized."

Based on vast experience with employees who do wrong or dangerous things at work, security experts have developed a list of indicators of behaviors to watch out for from people you may interact with every day.

"We want you to be sensitive of your surroundings," said Michael Leist, Enterprise Management Services director. "Our agency deals with large volumes of financial transactions and PII information, so it's important that each employee is aware of how we handle this information. It is imperative that every employee helps protect our resources, operations, information and personnel."

Some questions that may lead to indications of a potential insider threat:
◦Does the person have foreign contacts or travel overseas frequently?

◦Does the person mishandle classified information?

◦Does the person seek access to information that is not with their job scope?

◦Does the person seem to have integrity issues when it comes to time, effort or resources?

◦Does the person have grudges against coworkers, supervisors or the government?

Just as the annual SPIRIT lesson emphasizes, one indicator may not mean a person may be an insider threat, but a combination of personal predispositions, stressors, concerning behaviors and problematic organizational responses could increase the likelihood or risk, that individuals will commit acts against their organizations.

"It is very important that when indicators and concerning behaviors are observed, they are reported to counter insider threat program," Whitaker said. "Letting the appropriate officials know will help get professional assistance to those under stress and help to mitigate potential insider threats."

• Date Taken: 04.01.2019
• Date Posted: 12.31.2019 12:39
• Story ID: 357860
• Location: INDIANAPOLIS, IN, US