In the modern, internet-saturated world of digital business, it is more important now than ever to focus on cybersecurity. Over USD 170 Billion is expected to be spent in 2024 by companies fortifying their perimeters against external threats that so many people misjudge, and few will notice the most significant risk right within us: insider threat. Insider threats are often difficult to detect and prevent because of the trust that teams inherently have for their employees and partners. This blog is designed for any type of business that wants to improve their security look at how Fortinet User Entity Behavior Analytics can stop insider threats, such as those experienced by rental services for Fortinet products by P J Networks.
Understanding Insider Threats
Insider threats are ones that originate from within the organization itself and are compromised users who have access to the resources/data of your organization but may misuse it intentionally due to any ill intention or by accident. Such threats come in different forms like:
- Malicious Insiders: Employees or partners who engage intentionally, e.g., steal data, sabotage systems, leak sensitive information.
- Negligent Insiders: These are employees who act with the best intentions but end up putting security at risk through mistakes or loopholes such as not securing their own devices, falling for phishing scams, or being lax in following security procedures.
- Compromised Insiders: External actors who, typically utilizing compromised insider accounts, conduct cyberattacks.
Insider threats are difficult to identify because they behave as normally authorized users. But that result is useless when companies have strong user behavior analytics that can clearly show odd behaviors and secure their digital assets accordingly.
FortiInsight for User Behavior Analytics
Meet Fortinet’s new tool, “FortiInsight,” best known for User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA). In addition to this, FortiInsight empowers security teams to quickly and effectively identify, investigate, and mitigate insider threats. This is what FortiInsight does to increase security posture:
- Extensive Monitoring: Provides continuous user activity monitoring across endpoints, networks, and applications using FortiInsight. It comes with a complete perspective on what should be going on in the network traffic and can show abnormal things that may point to insider threats.
- Behavior Baselines: Users, as well as entities, are tracked continuously for realizing their normal behavior; this is useful to determine when there is a deviation from the established patterns (which might be a threat).
- Automated Alerts: Combining the power of ML algorithms, data analytics tools automatically trigger alerts for irregularities in behavior, enabling quick investigation and reaction.
- Records as Detailed Audit Logs: FortiInsight logs users’ behavior on the systems, which is essential data for compliance and forensic analysis in the event of a security incident.
Fortinet FortiGate, Fortinet NAC-OnPremise Integration
The combination of FortiInsight with FortiGate and FortiNAC solutions significantly extends the ability of an organization to combat insider threats:
- Integrates With FortiGate: Integration with the FortiGate firewall extends FortiInsight support for monitoring and controlling user activities beyond the network perimeter. Enabling this integration means making policy enforcement and threat remediation fully programmable.
- FortiNAC Integration: Adding an integration with FortiNAC (Network Access Control) ensures device compliance with corporate security policies when connecting to the network. As a result, it provides visibility into all endpoints (including those brought in by insiders) and ensures they are appropriately vetted and managed.
This combination makes for a fortified defense mechanism that spans user action, network access, and device management.
Best Practices for Insider Threat Programs
A well-executed insider threat program results from best practices which marry the solutions to technological controls and business requirements:
- Education and Training: On-the-job cybersecurity training programs help educate employees on security policies and the importance of protecting data.
- Access Controls: The Principle of Least Privilege should be enforced to ensure that users only have access to the data and systems they need based on their roles.
- Incident Response Plans: Establish detailed incident response plans which include operating procedures for inside threat events.
- Audit and Monitoring: Conduct regular audits of user activities, logging activity to confirm compliance with security policies, and identify any irregularities.
- Anonymized Behavior Analytics: Protect user privacy in your analytics by enforcing data anonymization to ensure sensitive data is masked within analytics tools.
By implementing these best practices, organizations can better protect themselves from insider threats.
Focusing on Rental Services
Investing in cybersecurity infrastructure like firewalls, servers, and routers can especially be high cost. By offering these important components on a rental basis, P J Networks can offer businesses the opportunity to upgrade their cybersecurity without the initial capital outlay. This strategy is especially advantageous for industries that hire Fortinet products:
- Scalability: Quick, agile management of scaling either up or down on security infrastructure to match business needs without being committed to long-term investments.
- Try Before You Buy: The capability to test multiple security setups before deploying a solution that could be well built into an irreversible commitment.
- Cost Efficiency: Reducing operational costs by renting only the required equipment and upgrading with changing technology.
When you use the rental services of P J Networks, your organization gets the best cybersecurity available via Fortinet while retaining some financial flexibility.
In the end, working intelligently with insider threats to protect your organization requires advanced analytics, integrations, and best practice implementation. The P J Networks rental services, combined with Fortinet’s suite of tools, deliver a combination at the right price point that is second-to-none. In securing digital assets for businesses to come, tackling the incoming tide of insider threats makes partnering with trusted sources and enabling top-notch technologies no longer an option but a necessity.
