Hot Topic: Strategic Alignment

Hot Topic: Strategic Alignment

Internal threats/sabotage form one of the most sensitive security concerns for any organization since they are hard to notice and may have extensive negative implications that may take long to notice. Internal threat is in this case defined as the risk of a company’s employee exploiting the company’s systems for malicious purposes such as to steal data or cause any form of damage. Such instances are troubling since employees are often expected to trusted and hence are often accorded privileges that are eventually easily abused. An organization’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) has the responsibility of ensuring that the organization sets policies that can help to reduce the risks of internal threats or sabotage in the organization. There are notable strategies that the CIO can take to prepare for possible sabotage in the organization.

The first strategy to prepare for an insider threat possibility is by creating and maintaining a good documentation for what is being used by the IT department. As the CIO, it is important to prepare for an intrusion possibility by having tightly controlled records for both access points and passwords (Schaefer et al.,2017). Proper documentation and a well-designed security access system helps the CIO to prepare for a possible intrusion. Safety controls can as well be used to protect the system from an intrusion. The second way to prepare for an insider threat is by maintaining a super administrator access so that the company has a high level of control to help prevent possible infiltration. Proper security systems such as strong passwords in the most sensitive access areas will help to reduce the risks of data infiltration.

The other way to prepare for an insider threat is to have a super administrator access whenever possible. This move will ensure that the company maintains the topmost level of control. Such a form of access will ensure that only a few trusted employees have access to the most sensitize data in the organization (Martin & Hafer, 2017). Ensuring that data is clearly documented and controlled by only few senior and trusted employees in the organization can help to reduce future sabotage as the senior management team is likely to be more accountable in handling company data. Having fast and clear change procedures for the company’s administrative passwords can ensure that there is no worker who makes system changes after they have left the company. Furthermore, compartmentalization access can be used such that workers are only allowed to have access to a given compartment and not necessarily access to the entire organization.

Preparing for insider threats possibility can also involve using IT tools that can allow setting of thresholds and alerts whenever there are unexpected activities going on in the network. Such detection will make it possible to detect for possible sabotage events in the system. Besides, as the CIO, it will be important to always monitor internal processes and systems to help keep away employees with malicious intent. Another important way to help reduce sabotage or internal threats is to train and sensitize employees on the need to adhere to the set security guidelines in the organization. Calling on the employees to be responsible as well as how they can contribute towards building a secure system in the organization are all key responsibilities of a CIO. Training of employees can as well help to ensure accountability in the organization.