Not again? This is the question you are probably asking yourself after reading the title of this blog post. However, a recent article reported that the US federal government has revealed that there is a new insider exposing national security documents based on the same source of leak that published former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s leaks. The source reveals that documents focus on the “growth in U.S. government databases of known or suspected terrorist names during the Obama administration.” They also mention that this was released after Snowden left the US.
This recent article brings to the attention of many that not only within the government but also among other businesses and organizations that insider threat is still very much an unsolved problem. It also is escalating into one of the top IT security threats. Most inside incidents can be claimed as accidental, but in this case it is apparent that it is malicious.
It’s obvious that we can’t just shut down everyone’s access to these confidential files. The need to share this information is important for business and in this case national security. So the question then becomes what can we do to prevent and mitigate these insider threats?
A recent report by leading research and analysis company Quocirca directly targets this issue, “The insider threat: solved with DRM”. DRM otherwise known as digital rights management provides all documents with protection from the moment of creation and monitors them throughout the document lifecycle.
Is it time for the government and other businesses to start implementing DRM to prevent data breaches, data leaks, and other kinds of information security disasters? Tell me what you think?
Photo Credit Martha Soukup
