A multi-dimension taxonomy of insider threats in cloud computing

Security is considered a significant deficiency in cloud computing, and insider threats problem exacerbate security concerns in the cloud. In addition to that, cloud computing is very complex by itself, because it encompasses numerous technologies and concepts. Apparently, overcoming these challenges requires substantial efforts from information security researchers to develop powerful mitigation solutions for this emerging problem. This entails developing a taxonomy of insider threats in cloud environments encompassing all potential abnormal activities in the cloud, and can be useful for conducting security assessment. This paper describes the first phase of an ongoing research to develop a framework for mitigating insider threats in cloud computing environments. Primarily, it presents a multidimensional taxonomy of insider threats in cloud computing, and demonstrates its viability. The taxonomy provides a fundamental understanding for this complicated problem by identifying five dimensions, it also supports security engineers in identifying hidden paths, thus determining proper countermeasures, and presents a guidance covers all bounders of insiders threats issue in clouds, hence it facilitates researchers’ endeavours in tackling this problem. For instance, according to the hierarchical taxonomy, clearly many significant issues exist in public cloud, while conventional insider mitigation solutions can be used in private clouds. Finally, the taxonomy assists in identifying future research directions in this emerging area

Insider Threat Prevention in the US Banking System

Insider threats have been a major problem for the US banking sector in recent years, costing billions of dollars in damages. To combat this, the implementation of effective cybersecurity measures is essential. This paper investigates the current state of insider threats to banks in the U.S., the associated costs, and the potential measures that can be taken to mitigate this risk. The development of a framework for the adoption of cybersecurity measures within the banking industry is the primary emphasis in order to stop fraud and lessen financial losses. Through a detailed examination of the literature, in-depth interviews with experts in the banking sector, and case studies of existing cybersecurity measures, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the problem and potential remedies. Analysis of the research reveals that identity and access management, data encryption, and secure authentication are key components of any cybersecurity strategy. Furthermore, it is recommended that banks increase their technical capabilities and improve their employee awareness and training. The study concludes with a series of suggestions for enhancing banking industry cybersecurity and eventually reducing the danger of insider attacks. This paper explores the topic of insider threats in the US banking industry and presents cybersecurity measures to prevent fraud. Insider threats from people with access to sensitive data and systems present serious hazards to the banking industry, resulting in monetary losses, reputational harm, and compromised data integrity

Value-driven Security Agreements in Extended Enterprises

Today organizations are highly interconnected in business networks called extended enterprises. This is mostly facilitated by outsourcing and by new economic models based on pay-as-you-go billing; all supported by IT-as-a-service. Although outsourcing has been around for some time, what is now new is the fact that organizations are increasingly outsourcing critical business processes, engaging on complex service bundles, and moving infrastructure and their management to the custody of third parties. Although this gives competitive advantage by reducing cost and increasing flexibility, it increases security risks by eroding security perimeters that used to separate insiders with security privileges from outsiders without security privileges. The classical security distinction between insiders and outsiders is supplemented with a third category of threat agents, namely external insiders, who are not subject to the internal control of an organization but yet have some access privileges to its resources that normal outsiders do not have. Protection against external insiders requires security agreements between organizations in an extended enterprise. Currently, there is no practical method that allows security officers to specify such requirements. In this paper we provide a method for modeling an extended enterprise architecture, identifying external insider roles, and for specifying security requirements that mitigate security threats posed by these roles. We illustrate our method with a realistic example

Novel Alert Visualization: The Development of a Visual Analytics Prototype for Mitigation of Malicious Insider Cyber Threats

Cyber insider threat is one of the most difficult risks to mitigate in organizations. However, innovative validated visualizations for cyber analysts to better decipher and react to detected anomalies has not been reported in literature or in industry. Attacks caused by malicious insiders can cause millions of dollars in losses to an organization. Though there have been advances in Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) over the last three decades, traditional IDSs do not specialize in anomaly identification caused by insiders. There is also a profuse amount of data being presented to cyber analysts when deciphering big data and reacting to data breach incidents using complex information systems. Information visualization is pertinent to the identification and mitigation of malicious cyber insider threats. The main goal of this study was to develop and validate, using Subject Matter Experts (SME), an executive insider threat dashboard visualization prototype. Using the developed prototype, an experimental study was conducted, which aimed to assess the perceived effectiveness in enhancing the analysts’ interface when complex data correlations are presented to mitigate malicious insiders cyber threats. Dashboard-based visualization techniques could be used to give full visibility of network progress and problems in real-time, especially within complex and stressful environments. For instance, in an Emergency Room (ER), there are four main vital signs used for urgent patient triage. Cybersecurity vital signs can give cyber analysts clear focal points during high severity issues. Pilots must expeditiously reference the Heads Up Display (HUD), which presents only key indicators to make critical decisions during unwarranted deviations or an immediate threat. Current dashboard-based visualization techniques have yet to be fully validated within the field of cybersecurity. This study developed a visualization prototype based on SME input utilizing the Delphi method. SMEs validated the perceived effectiveness of several different types of the developed visualization dashboard. Quantitative analysis of SME’s perceived effectiveness via self-reported value and satisfaction data as well as qualitative analysis of feedback provided during the experiments using the prototype developed were performed. This study identified critical cyber visualization variables and identified visualization techniques. The identifications were then used to develop QUICK.v™ a prototype to be used when mitigating potentially malicious cyber insider threats. The perceived effectiveness of QUICK.v™ was then validated. Insights from this study can aid organizations in enhancing cybersecurity dashboard visualizations by depicting only critical cybersecurity vital signs

A Worst Practices Guide to Insider Threats: Lessons from Past Mistakes

Insider threats are perhaps the most serious challenges that nuclear security systems face. All of the cases of theft of nuclear materials where the circumstances of the theft are known were perpetrated either by insiders or with the help of insiders; given that the other cases involve bulk material stolen covertly without anyone being aware the material was missing, there is every reason to believe that they were perpetrated by insiders as well. Similarly, disgruntled workers from inside nuclear facilities have perpetrated many of the known incidents of nuclear sabotage. The most recent example of which we are aware is the apparent insider sabotage of a diesel generator at the San Onofre nuclear plant in the United States in 2012; the most spectacular was an incident three decades ago in which an insider placed explosives directly on the steel pressure vessel head of a nuclear reactor and then detonated them.While many such incidents, including the two just mentioned, appear to have been intended to send a message to management, not to spread radioactivity, they highlight the immense dangers that could arise from insiders with more malevolent intent. As it turns out, insiders perpetrate a large fraction of thefts from heavily guarded non-nuclear facilities as well. Yet organizations often find it difficult to understandand protect against insider threats. Why is this the case?Part of the answer is that there are deep organizational and cognitive biases that lead managers to downplay the threats insiders pose to their nuclear facilities and operations. But another part of the answer is that those managing nuclear security often have limited information about incidents that have happened in other countries or in other industries, and the lessons that might be learned from them.The IAEA and the World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS) produce"best practices" guides as a way of disseminating ideas and procedures that have been identified as leading to improved security. Both have produced guides on protecting against insider threats.5 But sometimes mistakes are even moreinstructive than successes.Here, we are presenting a kind of "worst practices" guide of serious mistakes made in the past regarding insider threats. While each situation is unique, and serious insider problems are relatively rare, the incidents we describe reflect issues that exist in many contexts and that every nuclear security manager should consider. Common organizational practices -- such as prioritizing production over security, failure to share information across subunits, inadequate rules or inappropriate waiving of rules, exaggerated faith in group loyalty, and excessive focus on external threats -- can be seen in many past failures to protect against insider threats

Mitigating Insider Sabotage and Espionage: A Review of the United States Air Force\u27s Current Posture

The security threat from malicious insiders affects all organizations. Mitigating this problem is quite difficult due to the fact that (1) there is no definitive profile for malicious insiders, (2) organizations have placed trust in these individuals, and (3) insiders have a vast knowledge of their organization’s personnel, security policies, and information systems. The purpose of this research is to analyze to what extent the United States Air Force (USAF) security policies address the insider threat problem. The policies are reviewed in terms of how well they align with best practices published by the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Emergency Readiness Team and additional factors this research deems important, including motivations, organizational priorities, and social networks. Based on the findings of the policy review, this research offers actionable recommendations that the USAF could implement in order to better prevent, detect, and respond to malicious insider attacks. The most important course of action is to better utilize its workforce. All personnel should be trained on observable behaviors that can be precursors to malicious activity. Additionally, supervisors need to be empowered as the first line of defense, monitoring for stress, unmet expectations, and disgruntlement. In addition, this research proposes three new best practices regarding (1) screening for prior concerning behaviors, predispositions, and technical incidents, (2) issuing sanctions for inappropriate technical acts, and (3) requiring supervisors to take a proactive role

Self-Adaptive Role-Based Access Control for Business Processes

© 2017 IEEE. We present an approach for dynamically reconfiguring the role-based access control (RBAC) of information systems running business processes, to protect them against insider threats. The new approach uses business process execution traces and stochastic model checking to establish confidence intervals for key measurable attributes of user behaviour, and thus to identify and adaptively demote users who misuse their access permissions maliciously or accidentally. We implemented and evaluated the approach and its policy specification formalism for a real IT support business process, showing their ability to express and apply a broad range of self-adaptive RBAC policies