What is Insider Threat Mitigation?
In September 2021, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) published the Insider Risk Mitigation Self-Assessment Tool (IRMPE). The IRMPE is a tool that allows businesses to evaluate their risk of insider threats.
The insider threat self-assessment is intended to help business owners and operators, particularly small and mid-sized businesses that don’t have in-house security departments, to assess the risk of an insider threat occurrence.
The insider threat self-assessment is also intended to assist government and commercial entities in developing policies and procedures to prevent contractors, current and former workers, and other insiders from engaging in activities that could jeopardize the organization’s assets or reputation.
The IRMPE includes a set of questions that firms can use to assess their workplace security risk posture.
What are the requirements for IRMPE?
The Insider Risk Self-Assessment instrument covers three major domains of an insider threat program:
- Program Management
- Personnel & Training, and
- Data Collection & Analysis.
Each of these domains contain a set of goals and questions (also known as practices) that support the goals. Some goals may only have one question, while others may have many questions. The answers to the questions inform the enterprise as to whether the goal has been satisfied, or if there is more work needed.
Maturity Indicator Levels
A Maturity Indicator Level (MIL) is assigned to each of the organization’s insider threat program’s domains. It represents a consolidated view of performance.
MIL-1 Performed
Indicates that all Practices in the domain have been completed as determined by responses to the domain questions. MIL-1 denotes that there is sufficient evidence to establish the practices’ existence.
MIL-2 Planned
Indicates that all domain goals and activities are not only carried out, but also backed up by adequate planning, stakeholders, and related norms and rules.
MIL-3 Managed
Indicates that all domain goals and practices have been completed, planned, and the core infrastructure to support the process has been put in place.
MIL-4 Measured
Indicates that all of a domain’s goals and procedures are carried out, planned, managed, monitored, and controlled.
MIL-5 Define
Indicates that all goals and practices in a Domain are carried out, planned, managed, monitored, regulated, and coordinated across all internal constituencies with a stake in the practice’s success. A defined process or practice guarantees that an organization’s processes are consistent across organizational units and that lessons learned are shared throughout the organization.
The MIL-5 level of maturity is sometimes more relevant for larger enterprises charged with managing or providing guidance to dispersed business units.
It is important to note that a higher maturity level can be achieved by an organization only if it satisfies all of the practices of all of the maturity levels below it. In other words, even if an organization satisfies all of the MIL4 standards, if it fails to undertake all of the cybersecurity activities at MIL3 in a domain, it will fail to reach MIL4 in that domain.
Why should you be IRMPE compliant?
Insider breaches can have serious ramifications for firms, including reputational damage, financial loss, intellectual property theft, market share loss, and even bodily violence. Insider threats, according to CISA, can include current and former employees, contractors, or anybody with inside information about a company.
Insiders can constitute a severe threat in terms of their knowledge and understanding of the company, as well as the fact that they are trusted and have privileged access to systems and critical data.
The IRMPE is a set of questions that examines a company’s exposure to insider threats and provides feedback to help companies develop appropriate protection and minimize risk.
How to achieve IRMPE compliance?
We now understand just how important it is for organizations to protect themselves against insider threat.
The IRMPE was designed to help organizations assess their cybersecurity posture against insider threats with best practices for the organization to improve, as needed.
Centraleyes has integrated the IRMPE into its cutting-edge platform allowing companies to seamlessly run through the assessment process. The platform offers you a smart questionnaire, real-time customized scoring, and prioritized remediation guidance to fully implement the IRMPE controls based on your desired MIL level.
Benefits of using Centraleyes to implement IRMPE
- Helps organizations evaluate their cyber hygiene, with respect to insider threat, against known security standards and best practices in a repeatable, strategic, and disciplined manner
- Guides organizations through a collaborative smart-questionnaire to assess their current security controls against the insider threat
- Provides an intuitive dashboard with automated remediation and a unique breakdown screen that presents the assessment details and results in a user-friendly format
- As the assessment is completed, the remediation center is updated in real-time, providing actionable steps for the organization to implement. The organization will be able to manipulate and filter data in order to analyze the results with varying levels of granularity.
Using the Centraleyes platform, with its IRMPE integration, results in huge saving of hundreds of hours and resources, more accurate and measurable data, and peace of mind.
Take the IRMPE today using the Centraleyes platform.
