Data Snapshot

Internal Incidents Cause Almost A Quarter Of Breaches, With More Than Half Intentional

March 14th, 2024
Heidi Shey, Principal Analyst
Heidi Shey Principal Analyst
Joseph Blankenship, VP, Research Director
Joseph Blankenship VP, Research Director
With contributors:
Amy DeMartine , Liam Holloway , Demi Starks

Insider risk is an ongoing concern for many organizations today. Common consequences include fraud, privacy abuses, intellectual property theft, or damage to infrastructure. Twenty-two percent of security breaches in the past 12 months were caused by an internal incident, according to security decision-makers who experienced a breach and are aware of the cause. Forty percent who experienced an internal incident described it as accidental, but 47% blamed malicious intent, and 13% noted a mix of both inadvertent misuse and malicious intent. Organizations must carefully build insider risk management programs in response. This is a snapshot of Forrester’s data on security breaches.

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