HP And The Scary Corporate Fifth Column Concept – Hacked Off – Dark Reading.
Rob Enderle discusses employees leaking proprietary information to competitors. Rob focuses on Oracle’s efforts against HP, speculating that Larry Ellison’s hiring of Mark Hurd is part of a plan to acquire HP.
During a battle–competitive, political, or otherwise–detailed information about the other side’s strategy, weaknesses, and tactics can result in huge benefits for the firm that acquires it. In security, it is our job to plug leaks–which are difficult to find–to identify the potential for them. On the short list would be executives or employees who were passed over for critical promotions, complained about abuse, were identified as surplus but still working, or who were known to be disgruntled and aggressively looking for outside work.
Employees like this should be considered a security risk. Care should be taken to control the information they have access to, specifically looking for indications that information coming into their possession isn’t being passed outside the company.
