Security experts: Insider threat looms largest

While the U.S. military is building up defenses to fend off network-based attacks from enemy states and terrorists, some say the more-insidious security problem is the threat of an insider bent on sabotage or stealing data. At last week’s Forum on Information Warfare, researchers from the FBI and George Washington University emphasized the insider threat during presentations that drew military personnel and academics from around the world. In particular, IT systems administrators increasingly are seen as the most potentially dangerous insider threat – and military concern – because of their power over networks. In his keynote speech, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minihan, former head of the National Security Agency (NSA), compared today’s systems administrators to the encryption-code clerks of past wars who broke enemy secrets. He said systems administrators deserve greater attention from the military and should be better paid. Some researchers say they have seen the systems administrator go bad and see it as the Achilles’ heel of national defense. Full Story