[Ashly Jackson]

An insider threat occurs when individuals close to an organization who have authorized access to its network intentionally or unintentionally misuse that access to negatively affect the organization’s critical data or systems. Careless employees who do not follow their organizations’ business rules and policies cause insider threats. For example, they may inadvertently email customer data to external parties, click on phishing links in emails or share their login information with others. Contractors, business partners and third-party vendors are the source of other insider threats.
Some insiders intentionally bypass security measures out of convenience or ill-considered attempts to become more productive. Malicious insiders intentionally elude cybersecurity protocols to remove data, steal data to sell or exploit later, disrupt operations, or otherwise harm the business. Viruses and worms are malicious software programs (malware) aimed at destroying an organization’s systems, data, and network. A computer virus is malicious code that replicates by copying itself to another program, system, or host file. It remains inactive until someone activates it, either intentionally or accidentally, and spreads without the knowledge or permission of the user or system administrator.
Computer worms are self-replicating programs, meaning they do not need to copy themselves into a host program and do not require human intervention to spread. Its main function is to infect other computers while remaining active on the infected system. Worms often spread automatically and through parts of the operating system that are invisible to the user. Once a worm enters your system, it immediately begins replicating and infecting computers and networks that are not properly protected.