It is hard to imagine that given the headlines on an almost daily basis about the frequency of data breaches readers are not aware that securing data at rest and on the move has become the top priority of IT professionals around the world. And, while the headlines are almost always about the malicious activities of those not employed by those under attack, the realities are that insiders remain the main culprits of organization and personal information being compromised.

In fact, the realities are that while things such as the Edward Snowden NSA scandal have highlighted how a determined insider can cause immense harm, damage can also come for benign reasons as well and be just as devastating in many respects. 

There is a saying in the IT security professional ranks that has gained popularity that is very important to understand, “Identity is the new perimeter.” What this means is the barbarians are not at the gate because from an external perspective the gates are easily scaled or avoided. From an internal perspective this is about assuring employees, contractors, ecosystem partners, etc., are only allowed to access what they need and that such access meets not only corporate policies and rules but is adheres to an increasingly complex regulatory compliance environment where penalties for failing an audit can be extremely harsh.

When it comes to internal threats, what IT is looking at is a landscape where administrative identities are growing by orders of magnitude as server environments become increasingly heterogeneous and complex. This translates into unanticipated risks originating from more insiders with privileged access to servers and hence increases risks when identities and the privileges associated with them are not properly monitored and managed. 

This is a complex and fast moving area. It is why you are invited to join me and Matt Hurr, senior director, Product Management, Centrify Corporation on Tuesday June 24, 2014 at 12:00PM EDT/9:00AM PDT for an insightful webinar, “Identity Related Risks: What is the Real Insider Threat?”

Learn how to simplify the management of identity-related anticipated and unanticipated risks across Windows, Linux and UNIX servers, whether deployed on-premises or in the cloud.  Topics to be covered include:

• Identity related risks that contribute to the range of insider threats
• Approaches for mitigating these risks from both a behavioral and solutions perspective
• Real-world customer use cases and best practices

Identity really is the new perimeter, and making sure insiders are who they say they are, have privileges to what they are allowed to use, and that there is a compliant audit trail of activities so that IT has visibility to go along with their accountability and your organization does not run afoul of regulators has never been more important.  These risks can be mitigated and the webinar is a great resource for learning how.