What Are the Best Strategies for Uncovering Insider Threats Within Your Organization?
Uncovering insider threats within an organization requires careful strategy and effective communication and collaboration. The constant evolution of the workplace has led to a situation where risk management is becoming more and more complex. Sophisticated new technology, the rise of the remote workplace (either due to the current coronavirus pandemic or as part of a greater trend towards outside vendors and contractors), and the increasing threat of interference from third parties have given C-suite executives headaches in recent years. Insider threat mitigation involves protecting an organization from the damage that can be caused by an insider and by detecting and investigating any anomalies as quickly as possible. Agility in both uncovering threats and responding to them is of paramount importance. So what are some of the best strategies that you can use within your own insider risk management program to identify these threats?
How DOJ Uses Legal Action to Target China Over Alleged Espionage
The U.S. is countering China on several fronts, including economic, military and diplomatic. The Trump administration is also making a major push to challenge China through legal action, over allegations of intellectual property theft and spying. Nick Schifrin reports and talks to Assistant Attorney General John Demers, who leads the national security division at the Department of Justice.
Fraud Doesn’t Preclude Victory in Animation Tech Dispute: Ninth Circuit
In a dispute over “stolen” animation technology used in hit Disney films, the Ninth Circuit found Friday that fraud directed at a third party does not disqualify a technology company from obtaining a legal victory under the “unclean hands” doctrine. San Francisco-based Rearden LLC accused a former employee of its subsidiary Rearden MOVA of illegally selling its MOVA Countour “facial performance motion capture” technology to a Chinese company in 2012. Years later in February 2015, another Chinese corporation called Shenzhenshi Haitiecheng sued Rearden in San Francisco federal court, claiming it legally acquired the MOVA assets from that employee, Greg LaSalle, in May 2013. Shenzhenshi later granted a China and India-owned company, Digital Domain 3.0, or DD3, an exclusive license to use the patents.
A Year Later: Looking back at How the FBI Busted Two Men Who Worked for GE for Theft of Intellectual Property
“He thought he was the smartest guy in the room.” Instead, the FBI’s Albany Field Office spent the better part of seven years uncovering the duplicity of Delia and his business partner. The investigation showed the 2 men stole elements of a computer program and mathematical model that GE used to expertly calibrate the turbines used in power plants.That’s how FBI Albany Special Agent Vin Manglavil described Jean Patrice Delia, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal trade secrets from General Electric Company (GE). According to Manglavil, Delia was so confident that he believed he could download thousands of proprietary files-including a valuable trade secret-and launch a company to compete against his employer without anyone figuring out what he was up to. Instead, the FBI’s Albany Field Office spent the better part of seven years uncovering the duplicity of Delia and his business partner, Miguel Sernas, who was a former GE employee.
How a Chinese Agent Used Linkedin to Hunt for Targets
Jun Wei Yeo, an ambitious and freshly enrolled Singaporean PhD student, was no doubt delighted when he was invited to give a presentation to Chinese academics in Beijing in 2015. His doctorate research was about Chinese foreign policy and he was about to discover firsthand how the rising superpower seeks to attain influence. After his presentation, Jun Wei, also known as Dickson, was, according to US court documents, approached by several people who said they worked for Chinese think tanks. They said they wanted to pay him to provide “political reports and information”. They would later specify exactly what they wanted: “scuttlebutt” – rumours and insider knowledge. He soon realised they were Chinese intelligence agents but remained in contact with them, a sworn statement says. He was first asked to focus on countries in South East Asia but later, their interest turned to the US government. That was how Dickson Yeo set off on a path to becoming a Chinese agent – one who would end up using the professional networking website LinkedIn, a fake consulting company and cover as a curious academic to lure in American targets.
Theft of U.S. Companies’ IP Assets and Other National Security Issues Involving Foreign Governments and Foreign-Controlled Entities
Federal authorities have recently described the threat of economic espionage from foreign entities as one of the greatest threats to the economic vitality of the United States, and this has led to an increase in investigations and prosecutions targeting foreign nationals as well as U.S. citizens who control foreign entities. At present, the threat is primarily linked to the Chinese government and China-controlled entities; however, entities controlled by other foreign governments and non-governmental entities also represent a significant concern as well.
