The now-public whistleblower allegations that Twitter may have active foreign spies on its payroll are sure to raise concerns about insider threats at companies everywhere. But focusing only on potential spies is a mistake. Today anyone, not just those who may have a strong ideological or financial desire to disclose information about their organization, can be an insider threat.
With the growth of big data, supply chain cyber attacks and online extortion, not only can anyone pose an insider threat, but often they do so unknowingly. The threat is particularly dangerous to banks and financial institutions, multinational corporations and critical service providers as state-backed actors from places like Russia and China attempt to use more advanced cyber tools.
Most companies are not well-prepared or even aware of this threat and that needs to change. There must be dedicated efforts on both a tech and human level to deal with this growing danger.