Insider Threats

Overview:

The purpose of this Course is to provide students with the insights and tools to defeat the “Insider Threat”. Damaging theft and espionage by employees could be occurring within any agency or company on a daily basis and may remain undetected for years. The cause may be a disenchanted employee, a rival commercial company or a foreign country’s intelligence organization. An “insider” within the employees, working on behalf of themselves or someone else, may be stealing national security secrets, intellectual property, or technical and commercial secrets, on a regular basis. In the very worst case, an “insider’s” alienation from his employer could result in violence at the workplace, a terrorist attack or an “active shooter” situation. In all these scenarios, the detrimental impact of the “insider” on the future success or financial viability of the agency or company concerned could be devastating.  

Unfortunately, many “insiders” are actually created by the actions of the agency or company for whom they work. This Course provides detailed advice about the variety of Insider Threats and the measures that management should take to prevent and defeat them. The Course is designed to enhance the pre-emptive effectiveness of the agency’s and company’s management team, the Human Resource Department and local security officers.  The Course also explains both how an employee can become disaffected or radicalized and how a professional operative or terrorist conducts the process of recruitment of “an Insider”. An appreciation of these techniques, and adopting the appropriate responses, will improve an agency or company’s ability to effectively safeguard both its employees and its secrets against the insidious Insider Threat. 

Each module will conclude with a reading list so the student can conduct further research as required. 

Learning Objectives

• Explain the complexity of the Insider Threat
• Introduce the concept that “companies can create their own Insiders”
• Introduce the “One Fight, One Team” security response to the Insider Threat. 

About the Instructor

Paul Smith served with the British Army for 20 years, completed five operational tours in Northern Ireland, served as an expert instructor in the Northern Ireland Training and Advisory Team, and was as Military Assistant to the Assistant Chief of the Defense Staff (NATO) during Operation Desert Storm.

Paul has also served with the Ministry of Defense (MoD), the British Embassy in Washington, DC, and the FBI as an Intelligence Specialist. Paul has provided counterterrorist intelligence and operational training to U.S. Federal, State, and Local law enforcement agencies, and has advising and teaching experience in data exploitation.

In 2008 Paul joined CHDS an adjunct Professor teaching the federal, state, and local first responders. Paul is also a Senior Fellow of the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University in Washington, DC. He is married, lives in Georgetown, Washington, DC, and is a keen student of the American Civil War.