In today’s digital-first world, organizations face a growing challenge: insider risks. While external threats like phishing and ransomware dominate headlines, insider risks—whether accidental or malicious—are just as dangerous. Employees and contractors can unintentionally or intentionally misuse sensitive data, leading to data leaks, intellectual property theft, and reputational damage. Traditional approaches to data protection often fall short in addressing these risks, leaving organizations vulnerable. Mimecast’s Insider Risk Management and Data Protection solution offers a modern, risk-based approach to detect, prevent, and respond to insider threats effectively.
What’s Wrong with Traditional Approaches?
For years, organizations have relied on traditional Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools to protect sensitive data. While these tools were once considered the gold standard, they are no longer sufficient in today’s complex and fast-paced work environments. Here’s why:
- Limited Visibility: Traditional DLP tools struggle to monitor the full scope of data movement across modern work environments, including endpoints, cloud apps, messaging platforms, and unsanctioned tools. This creates blind spots that insiders can exploit.
- Complexity and Inefficiency: Implementing and maintaining DLP systems is resource-intensive, often requiring months of setup, constant fine-tuning, and dedicated headcount. Despite this, 35% of DLP implementations fail1, and 75% of companies using DLP still experience data breaches2.
- Rigid Policies: Traditional tools rely on static, inflexible policies that block data movement outright, often disrupting productivity. They lack the ability to analyze context, making it difficult to distinguish between accidental mistakes and malicious intent.
- Reactive, Not Proactive: Traditional approaches are slow to detect and respond to insider threats. Security teams often find themselves reacting to incidents after the damage has already been done, rather than preventing them in real time.
The result? Insider threats are on the rise, with insider-driven data events increasing by 32% year over year3. Nearly 25% of data breaches are caused by insiders4, and 55% of insider incidents are intentional5. Organizations need a better way to manage these risks.
Evolving to a Modern Approach
To effectively address insider risks, organizations must move beyond outdated DLP tools and adopt a modern, risk-based approach. This approach focuses on understanding user behavior, detecting risks in real time, and taking proactive measures to prevent data loss.
- Comprehensive Visibility: A modern approach provides full visibility into how data is accessed, shared, and moved across all platforms, including endpoints, cloud apps, email, and shadow IT. This ensures no data movement goes unnoticed, even in unsanctioned or emerging tools like generative AI applications.
- Behavioral Context: Instead of relying on rigid policies, a modern approach analyzes user behavior in context. For example, it can differentiate between an employee accidentally uploading a sensitive file to an unsanctioned app and someone intentionally exfiltrating intellectual property. This context allows for more accurate and effective responses.
- Proactive Intervention: Real-time monitoring and automated corrective actions, such as nudges or blocking risky activities, help prevent data loss before it happens. This reduces the burden on security teams and minimizes disruptions to productivity.
- Faster Investigations: By leveraging contextual insights and automated workflows, security teams can drastically reduce investigation times, enabling quicker resolution of incidents and reducing the mean time to respond (MTTR).
This modern, proactive approach not only protects sensitive data but also fosters a culture of accountability, empowering employees to make better decisions while maintaining productivity.
How Mimecast Solves This Problem
Mimecast Incydr is purpose-built to address the challenges of insider risk, offering a smarter, more effective alternative to traditional DLP tools.
- Advanced Detection and Monitoring: Mimecast provides unparalleled visibility into data movement across your organization, pinpointing where, when, and how sensitive data is accessed or shared. With coverage across endpoints, email, cloud apps, and unsanctioned platforms, Mimecast eliminates data protection blind spots.
- Automated Responses: Mimecast leverages AI and automation to respond to insider risk events in real time. From blocking uploads to unauthorized apps to delivering nudges that prompt better employee behavior, Mimecast ensures incidents are addressed before they escalate.
- Ease of Use and Integration: Unlike traditional DLP tools, Mimecast integrates seamlessly with your existing security stack—such as EDR, SIEM, and HR tools—and is quick to deploy. Most organizations achieve payback in under six months, compared to the 6-12 months it often takes to implement traditional DLP solutions.
- Protect Critical Data Without Compromise: Mimecast enables organizations to safeguard their most valuable assets—such as customer lists, source code, and intellectual property—without slowing down employees or impacting productivity. By analyzing data in context and offering flexible controls, Mimecast ensures that security doesn’t become a barrier to business operations.
- Proven Results: Mimecast’s customers have seen tangible benefits, including a 36% reduction in low- and moderate-risk data-sharing activity within just four months. Additionally, security teams using Mimecast spend less than four hours per week on administration, freeing up resources for more strategic priorities.
Proactive Protection for a Modern Workforce
Insider risks are among the hardest threats to detect and mitigate, but they don’t have to be. Mimecast’s Insider Risk Management and Data Protection solution offers a smarter, more effective way to protect your organization from within. By combining advanced visibility, contextual insights, and automated interventions, Mimecast empowers organizations to detect, prioritize, and prevent insider threats without introducing unnecessary complexity. It’s time to move beyond outdated tools and adopt a solution designed for the realities of modern data protection. With Mimecast, you can protect your sensitive data, reduce investigation times, and foster a culture of accountability—ensuring your business stays secure and productive in an ever-changing threat landscape.
Thank you for reading; if you have any questions, please ask them by posting a comment below.
