Campaigns

CAM008

Notes for HR practitioners: your role in reducing insider threat

As we brought ‘It happens here’ together, we heard often about the critical role people HR teams play in mitigating insider threat.

If you’re an HR practitioner and haven’t had much to do with your organisation’s security team, now’s the time to reach out. There’s a range of ways you can ensure better security in your organisation, but you might need some new processes and systems (or to dust off old ones). Your security team can help you do that.

What you can do

When it comes to security — particularly insider threat — you have an important ‘bookend’ role to play. Here are some actions you can take.

  • Support a ‘mature’ security culture, where all aspects of the organisation are on board and integrated.
  • Ensure you always do thorough pre-employment checks: Recruit the right person
  • Make sure new staff are aware of their responsibilities as stewards of sensitive and valuable information and assets.
  • Improve employee engagement to prevent disgruntled employees becoming a source of insider threat.
  • Consider the insider threat presented by individuals going through disciplinary proceedings or similar, who may experience heightened disgruntlement.
  • Track engagement and ensure good tracking systems and processes are in place when line managers or other staff raise issues to do with insider threat.
  • Manage the departure process for staff by working with your security team before, during, and after their departure to spot any irregularities or other issues.

To manage some of these processes and practices, you’ll need internal policies and major collaborative efforts. For others, simple conversations with your security team will be best.

Your first step

To fill any gaps in your knowledge of insider threat, start with reading the following guide:

It happens here: Managing the insider threat to your organisation

Page last modified: 6/08/2020