Which of the following is considered an insider threat?

Question

Options

• AA disgruntled employee transmitting confidential data to a competitor
• BA hacker exploiting a vulnerability in the firewall
• CA malware infection from an email attachment
• DA denial-of-service attack from an unknown external source

• A
  87% (20)
• B
  9% (2)
• C
  4% (1)

Explanation

Option A is correct because an insider threat originates from someone within the organization - in this case, a disgruntled employee who already has legitimate access to confidential data and abuses it by transmitting it to a competitor. Options B, C, and D are all external threats: a hacker exploiting a firewall vulnerability comes from outside the network perimeter, a malware infection via email attachment is an external payload delivered inbound, and a denial-of-service attack by definition originates from unknown outside actors. The key distinguishing factor is trust and access - insiders are people (employees, contractors, partners) who have been granted authorized access and misuse it, whereas external threats have no pre-existing legitimate access.

Memory tip: Think "INsider = INside the organization." If the threat actor already has keys to the building, it's an insider threat.

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