Insider Threat Special Report: Whistleblowers
January 25, 2017 | Mackenzie Weinger
Photo: iStock.com/peterhowell
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Distinguishing between whistleblowers who want to point out and fix problems within the intelligence community and employees who want to damage national security will demand increased attention as the insider threat problem grows, experts say.
On November 30, contractors who hold facility clearances were required to have a written insider threat program in place. The change comes on the heels of NSA leaker Edward Snowden, and more recently, another government contractor named Harold Martin, who removed classified information without authorization. In such a landscape, requiring contractors to have a program to look out for an insider threat seems obvious given the valid concerns over the theft of information critical to national security — but it could prove troubling in the context of targeting whistleblowers.
With new insider threat programs in place, companies are going to “be out there looking for odd behavior and indicators, and they’re going to start to identify people who are potential whistleblowers,” James Harris, an attorney with Holland & Knight in Washington, D.C. who counsels businesses in the intelligence and defense sectors, said. “So in some sense, they may sort of beat them to the punch.”
https://www.thecipherbrief.com/article/exclusive/tech/insider-threat-special-report-whistleblowers-1092?utm_source=Aggregators&utm_campaign=807acf2f89-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_01_25&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b02a5f1344-807acf2f89-122460921
