As part of National Insider Threat Awareness Month (NITAM), the federal government has created several free online resources and awareness training modules that organizations can use to manage the risk of insider threats. WaterISAC encourages water and wastewater utilities to review these resources and share them throughout their organizations.
The NITAM website has freely available guidance resources for all organizations to use to help increase awareness, promote reporting of insider threats across your workforce, and perform your role in managing risk and mitigating insider threats. Specifically, the resource page offers users a dozen interactive training modules for managing various aspects of insider threats. It also includes case studies on past insider threat incidents that provide details on the malicious activities, their organizational impact, and the potential risk indicators that, if identified, could have mitigated harm. The site also has an interactive video that highlights many aspects of an insider threat management program, called the “Insider Threat Fact Finding – Detect Potential Risk.”
Additionally, users have access to fact sheets and templates to help them build up their insider threat management program. For example, CISA’s Insider Threat Reporting Templates includes two fillable-PDF forms that stakeholders can incorporate into their organization’s insider threat mitigation program, with the intent of helping streamline reports of suspicious activity in the workplace, which may be indicative of a potential insider threat. Lastly, the NITAM site has two PowerPoint slide deck that users can download and use to conduct insider threat awareness briefings at their organization (access briefing 1 and access briefing 2).
On Thursday, September 19, U.S. government personnel will host a webinar at 12:00 p.m. ET that will provide an overview of all the NITAM resources and trainings on the site, members can register for that webinar here. Ultimately, insider threats are an enduring risk for water and wastewater utilities, but an insider threat management program can greatly reduce the risk of operational impacts. Access the NITAM resources here.