Abstract

This IDC study focuses on the corruption of IT systems by trusted insiders. “It includes characteristics of sabotage attacks, staffing of defenses, conduct of insider sabotage, patterns of IT subversion, reactions by angry employees, preventive measures, auditing an incident created by an insider, human factors that cause sabotage, and protection through recovery of operations,” according to Paul Strassman, adjunct research advisor, CIO Agenda Team.

This study alerts CIOs, senior managers, and boards of directors to one of the most insidious perils emerging from datacenter consolidations. IDC warns that the growth in applications, rising employee turnover, and globalization into hybrid clouds make the current era perilous. IT sabotage undermines internal and external trust in executive management. Insider sabotage has an adverse effect on a firm’s reputation for integrity. Though there are other forms of cybercrime such as the theft of secrets or embezzlement, a single act of insider sabotage reflects adversely on top-level executives. For this reason, information security has moved up as a top agenda in the executive suite.