Why personnel security matters
PER027, PER028
Personnel security protects your people, information, and assets by enabling your organisation to:
- reduce the risk of harm to your people, customers and partners
- reduce the risk of your information or assets being lost, damaged, or compromised
- have greater trust in people who access your official or important information and assets
- deliver services and operate more effectively.
Insider threats come from our past or present employees, contractors or business partners. They can misuse their inside knowledge or access to harm our people, our customers, our assets or our reputation. Personnel security focusses on reducing the risks associated with insider threats.
An ‘insider threat’, or ‘insider’, is any person who exploits, or intends to exploit, their legitimate access to an organisation’s assets to harm the security of their organisation or New Zealand, either wittingly or unwittingly, through espionage, terrorism, unauthorised disclosure of information or loss or degradation of a resource (or capability).
Common insider acts include:
- unauthorised disclosure of official, private, or proprietary information
- fraud or process corruption
- unauthorised access to ICT systems
- economic or industrial espionage
- theft
- violence or physical harm to others.
Many security breaches are unintentional and result from a lack of awareness or attention to security practices, being distracted or being fooled into unwittingly assisting a third party.