While security used to be an afterthought for many businesses, it’s now something that they realize cannot be ignored. Much of the focus is placed on keeping threats out, but too few companies focus on the threats that may already be internal. And we’re not talking about malware.

What we’re talking about are employees of the companies themselves. Here you have people who are paid to be a part of the company, and along with those jobs comes a high level of trust. The more exposure that these employees have to sensitive systems and data, the more that they’re trusted to deal with them in the proper way. Most of the time that trust is well founded because the employees have worked hard to advance their careers and gain that level of trust, but sometimes it can cause security problems.

There is a reason for which the BYOD policy should become a hot topic in the IT department of every company. Allowing employees to use their personal devices at work can cause incredible damage. Even so, there is also a less discussed threat for businesses to take into consideration.

Just think about what can happen if an employee suddenly becomes disgruntled. In certain situations, someone who used to be a trustworthy employee can suddenly become a security threat to the company.

It’s not hard to see how an employee with access could start to steal data, publicize confidential information, or infect the internal network in some other way. While outside threats can be monitored, detected, and acted upon, many internal threats can be invisible until it’s too late.

With that in mind, companies need to start paying more attention to what’s going on internally. While they shouldn’t view all of their employees as criminals, they should keep their eyes open for signs of an employee who might be tempted to cause some problems.

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