Malicious Insider Threat to Data Security: Mitigation Strategy for municipalities

Abstract

The municipal governments are the custodians of huge volumes of sensitive information, including personally identifiable information (PII), financial information, law enforcement intelligence, and control of essential infrastructure. Although external cyber-threats are the most discussed, deliberate insider threats, malicious actions of authorised personnel, are an equally serious, but underestimated threat to municipal data security. The paper is a holistic formulation of a mitigation strategy, which is specific to the local government setting. The proposed solution, based on such standard frameworks as the NIST SP 800-53, ISO/IEC 27001, and CERT Insider Threat Model, and incorporating socio-technical and risk management concepts, will build a multi-layered defence. This model is a combination of governance policies, technical controls, behavioural monitoring, and reforms in the organisational culture. It focuses on active prevention, ongoing surveillance, as well as organised incident recovery and response. The paper also covers some very important ethical and legal issues, especially how to strike a balance between the privacy of employees and the required monitoring. A gradual implementation scheme and performance indicators are proposed to guarantee feasible implementation, which is based on municipal budget and regulatory factors. The study finds that insider risk mitigation goes beyond technology, as a complex and culture-entrenched challenge necessitating an overhaul of the municipal operations to instill trust, accountability, and resilience.