Most Cyber Attacks Are An Inside Job

by Felix Richter, Statista.com

-- this post authored by Martin Armstrong

Cyber attacks are a constant threat to businesses around the world with vast sums of money being spent to protect against them.

The image of some nefarious character plotting in his or her bedroom is one most of us have when thinking about hackers and cyber criminals. While in 2015, 40 percent of attacks stemmed from 'outsiders', a surprising 60 percent were actually perpetrated by company insiders.

IBM, who produced the figures based on information from over 8,000 of their clients devices, revealed that although 15.5 percent of such 'attacks' were caused inadvertently, 44.5 percent were deemed to have been malicious.

An insider is defined as anyone who has physical or remote access to a company's assets. IBM note that although this would often be an employee, it can also mean business partners or maintenance contractors - people you trust enough to grant system access to. Insiders not only have this access, they may also be aware of your weaknesses and thus exploit them more effectively than an outside agent might be able to.

This chart shows the type of people that committed cyber attacks in 2015.

You will find more statistics at Statista.