Industry studies of malicious insider incidents (such as the CERT Insider Threat Incident Corpus) reveal that some motivations occur far more often than ideological or philosophical beliefs. Which of the following motives accounts for a larger share of documented malicious insider cases than ideological or philosophical beliefs?
Political or philosophical ideology
Ethical whistleblowing to expose wrongdoing
Desire for recognition or notoriety
Revenge or personal grievance against the organization
Personal grievances that manifest as revenge are a leading driver of malicious insider activity. CERT's analysis attributes more than 70 % of IT-sabotage cases-and roughly one-quarter of all malicious insider incidents-to revenge, whereas ideological or political beliefs appear in well under 15 % of cases. The other listed motivations (ethical whistleblowing, political beliefs, or seeking publicity) do occur but are documented far less frequently than revenge-based actions. Therefore, revenge or personal grievance is the best answer.
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What is the CERT Insider Threat Incident Corpus?
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Why do personal grievances lead to insider threats more often than ideological motives?
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How can organizations detect and mitigate insider threats driven by personal grievances?