IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ijocip/v24y2019icp166-176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The insider threat: Behavioral indicators and factors influencing likelihood of intervention

Author

Listed:
  • Bell, Alison J.C.
  • Rogers, M. Brooke
  • Pearce, Julia M.

Abstract

The insider threat is a significant security concern for Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) organizations. A successful insider act in one of the CNI sectors has potential to damage assets and interrupt the critical services that society depends upon. Existing research suggests that behavioral indicators are often evident prior to an act taking place, but that reporting of such behaviors does not usually happen. The aim of this study was to identify factors that influence employees’ intention to intervene when observing behavioral changes associated with insider acts. An online survey with employees within a large Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) energy sector organization (N = 55) explored factors including behavioral change type, relationship to the actor, employment status of the actor and actor motivations. Results supported existing research regarding reluctance to report behavioral indicators of attitude change, but also demonstrated that situations with sufficient evidence are more likely to be reported. Factors which inhibited intervention likelihood were relative seniority and perceived motivations of the actor, confidence of confidentiality and clarity of reporting processes. Primary barriers to intervention related to the observer's perceived ability to correctly interpret behavioral indicators and awareness of how to respond. Organizations need to provide training regarding behavioral indictors of insider threats, clear, confidential reporting processes, and a culture where respectful challenge is encouraged.

Suggested Citation

  • Bell, Alison J.C. & Rogers, M. Brooke & Pearce, Julia M., 2019. "The insider threat: Behavioral indicators and factors influencing likelihood of intervention," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 166-176.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ijocip:v:24:y:2019:i:c:p:166-176
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcip.2018.12.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1874548218300982
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijcip.2018.12.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pattitoni & Barbara Petracci & Massimo Spisni, 2013. "Insider trading and blackout periods: evidence from Italy," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(18), pages 1625-1629, December.
    2. Viktoria Gisladottir & Alexander A. Ganin & Jeffrey M. Keisler & Jeremy Kepner & Igor Linkov, 2017. "Resilience of Cyber Systems with Over‐ and Underregulation," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(9), pages 1644-1651, September.
    3. Alcaraz, Cristina & Zeadally, Sherali, 2015. "Critical infrastructure protection: Requirements and challenges for the 21st century," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 53-66.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Irangani B.K. Sagarika & Zhiqiang Liu & Kumar Nilesh & Khanal Saroj, 2021. "Effect of competitive psychological climate on unethical pro-team behavior: The role of perceived insider status and transformational leadership," Management, Sciendo, vol. 25(1), pages 1-27, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tomáš Fröhlich & Zdeněk Hon & Martin Staněk & Jiří Slabý, 2023. "Method of Identification and Assessment of Security Needs of a Region against the Threat of a Large Power Outage," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Poulin, Craig & Kane, Michael B., 2021. "Infrastructure resilience curves: Performance measures and summary metrics," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    3. Edward J. Oughton & Daniel Ralph & Raghav Pant & Eireann Leverett & Jennifer Copic & Scott Thacker & Rabia Dada & Simon Ruffle & Michelle Tuveson & Jim W Hall, 2019. "Stochastic Counterfactual Risk Analysis for the Vulnerability Assessment of Cyber‐Physical Attacks on Electricity Distribution Infrastructure Networks," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(9), pages 2012-2031, September.
    4. Milan Stojkov & Nikola Dalčeković & Branko Markoski & Branko Milosavljević & Goran Sladić, 2021. "Towards Cross-Standard Compliance Readiness: Security Requirements Model for Smart Grid," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-29, October.
    5. Hadi Alizadeh & Ayyoob Sharifi, 2020. "Assessing Resilience of Urban Critical Infrastructure Networks: A Case Study of Ahvaz, Iran," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-20, May.
    6. Katarzyna Rostek & Michał Wiśniewski & Witold Skomra, 2022. "Analysis and Evaluation of Business Continuity Measures Employed in Critical Infrastructure during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-22, November.
    7. David Rehak & Michal Radimsky & Martin Hromada & Zdenek Dvorak, 2019. "Dynamic Impact Modeling as a Road Transport Crisis Management Support Tool," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-16, March.
    8. Martin Eling & Michael McShane & Trung Nguyen, 2021. "Cyber risk management: History and future research directions," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 24(1), pages 93-125, March.
    9. R. Ferretti & P. Pattitoni & R. Patuelli, 2016. "Market Abuse Directive and Insider Trading: Evidence from Italian Tender Offers," Working Papers wp1071, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    10. Chaoqi, Fu & Yangjun, Gao & Jilong, Zhong & Yun, Sun & Pengtao, Zhang & Tao, Wu, 2021. "Attack-defense game for critical infrastructure considering the cascade effect," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    11. Michal Wisniewski, 2021. "The Role of Integral Model of Critical Infrastructure Safety in Industry 4.0," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 1153-1188.
    12. Mohamed Amine Ferrag & Leandros Maglaras & Ahmed Ahmim & Makhlouf Derdour & Helge Janicke, 2020. "RDTIDS: Rules and Decision Tree-Based Intrusion Detection System for Internet-of-Things Networks," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-14, March.
    13. Bhandari, Pratik & Creighton, Douglas & Gong, Jinzhe & Boyle, Carol & Law, Kris M.Y., 2023. "Evolution of cyber-physical-human water systems: Challenges and gaps," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    14. Dagmar Linnertová & Oleg Deev, 2015. "Insider Trading Activities and Returns of German Blue Chips," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 63(6), pages 1995-2003.
    15. Chaoqi, Fu & Pengtao, Zhang & Lin, Zhou & Yangjun, Gao & Na, Du, 2021. "Camouflage strategy of a Stackelberg game based on evolution rules," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 153(P2).
    16. CHERIFI, Tarek & HAMAMI, Lamia, 2018. "A practical implementation of unconditional security for the IEC 60780-5-101 SCADA protocol," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 68-84.
    17. Wei, Sen & Li, Yanping & Yang, Hanqing & Xie, Minghui & Wang, Yuanqing, 2023. "A comprehensive operation and maintenance assessment for intelligent highways: A case study in Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 84-98.
    18. Riccardo Ferretti & Pierpaolo Pattitoni & Anna Salinas, 2015. "The effectiveness of insider trading regulations: The case of the Italian tender offers," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 15309, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    19. Riccardo Ferretti & Pierpaolo Pattitoni & Anna Salinas, 2015. "The effectiveness of insider trading regulations: The case of the Italian tender offers," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0057, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    20. Giudicianni, Carlo & Herrera, Manuel & Di Nardo, Armando & Oliva, Gabriele & Scala, Antonio, 2021. "The faster the better: On the shortest paths role for near real-time decision making of water utilities," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ijocip:v:24:y:2019:i:c:p:166-176. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-critical-infrastructure-protection .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.