Protecting your organization from external threats is only one piece of the puzzle. You also must protect your organization from the inside out, another facet of “assume breach” in your Zero Trust approach. Insider risks can be malicious or inadvertent, but they all impact one of your organization’s most important assets: your data. In the 2022 Cost of Insider Threats: Global Report, the Ponemon Institute found that the average cost of activities to resolve an insider incident was $15.4M USD and it took an average of 85 days to contain an incident.

Addressing insider risks is a challenge

93%

of organizations are concerned about insider risks¹.

25%

of all data breaches are due to insider activity².

85 days

average time to contain an insider incident³.

• [1] 93% of organizations are concerned about insider risks (Insider Risk Management, Microsoft Market Research, January 2021)
• [2] 25% of all data breaches are due to insider activity (Communication Compliance, Microsoft Market Research, May 2021)
• [3] 85 days average time to contain an insider incident (2022 Cost of Insider Threats: Global Report, The Poneman Institute.)

Microsoft 365 Purview Insider Risk Management (IRM) offers a comprehensive solution to protect your business from potential risks and ensure the confidentiality and integrity of your sensitive information. It helps minimize internal risks by enabling you to detect, investigate, and act on malicious and inadvertent activities in your organization. Insider risk management policies (IRM Policies) allow you to define the types of risks to identify and detect in your organization. Risk analysts and investigators in your organization can quickly take appropriate actions to make sure users are compliant with your organization’s compliance standards.

Insider Risk Management is designed to help you:

Identify potentially risky user activity

Allow you to provide risk based controls like blocking sensitive documents from being shared outside of your environment

Better understand risky user activity in your environment

Manage and investigate potential exfiltration or data theft activities

Prevent a ransomware attack

Insider risks can pose significant challenges to businesses of all sizes. These risks can come from employees, contractors, or anyone with authorized access to your organization’s data. Insider risks include unauthorized data sharing, data theft, or accidental data exposure. To effectively protect your business, it is essential to proactively detect and respond to these risks.

Why is Insider Risk important for your organization?

• Employees have more access to create, manage, and share data.
• Most organizations have limited resources and tools to identify insider risks.
• 25% of all data breaches are due to insider activity.

To better understand the practical benefits of Microsoft 365 Purview Insider Risk Management, let’s explore some use cases:

### Intellectual Property Protection

Protecting your intellectual property is vital for the success and competitiveness of your business. Insider Risk Management can help detect any unauthorized attempts to access or share sensitive intellectual property (including information oversharing). By monitoring user activities and analyzing data access patterns, this solution can identify potential insider risks and provide timely alerts, enabling you to take immediate action to protect your valuable intellectual assets.

### Compliance and Data Privacy

Compliance with data privacy regulations is a critical concern for businesses across various industries. Insider Risk Management assists in maintaining compliance by monitoring and analyzing data access and sharing activities. By automatically detecting potential compliance violations, such as unauthorized access to personally identifiable information (PII), the solution helps mitigate risks and ensures your business avoids costly penalties.

### Employee Misconduct

Unfortunately, instances of employee misconduct can occur within any organization. Insider Risk Management can help identify and investigate any suspicious activities, such as unauthorized data exfiltration or misuse of privileged access. By detecting early warning signs and providing comprehensive visibility into user behavior, this solution enables you to take proactive measures to address employee misconduct and protect your business’s reputation.

### Monitoring Employees with Their Resignation Date

In particular, it is possible to automatically follow up and monitor employees who have specified the date of resignation date.

User-Friendly Interface and Intuitive Dashboards: Simplifying Risk Management

Monitoring and managing insider risks should not be a complex and time-consuming task. Microsoft 365 Purview Insider Risk Management features a user-friendly interface and intuitive dashboards, making it easy for you to monitor and manage potential risks. The solution provides actionable insights and recommendations, empowering you to make informed decisions and take prompt action to prevent any potential data breaches.

Microsoft 365 Purview Insider Risk Management is a powerful solution that helps protect your business from insider risks. By leveraging advanced analytics, seamless integration with other Microsoft 365 security and compliance tools, a user-friendly interface, and robust data protection features, this solution provides a comprehensive approach to data security.

Remember, data security is an ongoing process. Stay proactive, stay informed about the latest security practices, and leverage the capabilities of Microsoft 365 Compliance Portal to ensure the highest level of security for your business.