Putting a hat on a hen? Learnings for malicious insider threat prevention from the background of german white-collar crime research

Abstract

Mainly based on an increasing dependence on ICT, the protection of crucial assets has become increasingly important for organizations. Beside external hacker attacks and malware, malicious insider threat continues to be one of the main security issues facing organizations. This article presents motives, characteristics and other influencing factors of employees to commit to criminal behavior. Therefore, results from the background of German economic offenders’ research and related theories of crime are analyzed. The work closes with recommendations for further research and starting points for insider threat prevention management.