Can you no longer avoid closely monitoring employees?

Last week Network World ran a series of articles that they titled "Burning Security Questions". I'm going to take a look at a few of these burning questions, and start today with the topic of "Insider Threats", basically the issue of your own employees turning into the bad guys.

Network World reported:

The insider threat has always existed, but in an era of economic upheaval and uncertainty, the problem is only magnified. That point came across in a recent Ponemon Institute survey of 945 individuals who were laid off, fired or quit their jobs during the last year, with 59% admitting to stealing company data and 67% using their former company's confidential information to leverage a new job.

These security figures reiterate the need for security at the corporate web gateway using technology such as DLP (data leakage prevention). The web proxy is ideally situated to pass on web requests to DLP systems. If you decide your company isn't ready for DLP, the web proxy is also a great way to record web requests, so that any forensics you might need in the future can be done as well, once there is data loss.

While the web proxy and DLP will help secure your network against data loss, it of course doesn't address physical security, and the possibility of your corporate data walking out the door on a thumb drive.