Having had a few days to digest my RSA Conference 2016 experience (and let my feet recover), I'm not sure whether to be more concerned about cybersecurity challenges or more at ease due to the sheer number of solutions on display that are available to mitigate these challenges. In reality, my emotions are mixed.

On the one hand, the cybersecurity threat is real and spreading across all types and sizes of businesses and government agencies. On the other hand, information sharing is taking place across, and within, industries like never before, and technology is being harnessed in an effort to strengthen defenses against the latest cybersecurity threats. But my biggest takeaway from the week might be different from that of the many technology evangelists and cyber risk experts that I encountered: the human element might be the most important element in mitigating data loss risks.

The risk of data loss due to the human element is quite substantial and probably merits a paper on its own or perhaps a dedicated Take on Payments series. Today, I'm going to focus on a single aspect of the human element: the expanding nature of the insider threat. In a Take On Payments post from the summer of 2013, I discussed some access and security management principles to thwart malicious behavior from an insider.

Traditionally, an insider has been thought of as an employee. That definition has broadened as organizations outsource more internal-support functions to third-party providers. Much has been written and discussed concerning regulatory and compliance issues related to third-party providers, and this notion of the "outside insider" is a logical extension of a company's risk management practice. The insider threat is real and costly. According to data from the Ponemon Institute, malicious insider attacks cost companies an average of about $144,000 annually.

Ensuring that any third-party provider has the necessary policies and procedures in place to secure your data from outsiders is paramount, but what about the sufficiency of their controls to protect your data from potential bad actors within these third parties? Have you given much thought to this notion of the "outside insider"? If you have, what recommendations or best practices do you have to avoid becoming a victim of a malicious insider on the outside?

Photo of David Lott By David Lott, a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed