How perceptions of insider threats influence organization actions

This qualitative study seeks to understand how perceptions of South African employees influence organization actions. Findings from ten information technology professionals show that employees who commit insider threats were confident in their technical capabilities, selfish and risk takers. Their behavior was successfully enabled by the lack of stringent prescreening processes during recruitment, weak organization SETA programs, and the need to maintain social cohesion with colleagues/peers. These perceptions have allowed organization to (i) enact stringent recruitment prescreening systems (ii) adopt and regularly updating latest security tools and technologies; (iii) improve SETA programs by adopting emerging technologies (iv) acquire technical expertise to handle security related threats and ensure they attend continuous training due to address emerging threats due to the changing technological landscape; and finally (v) provide management support for the acquisition of the latest security tools and technologies, the technical expertise and retention of these employee.