Understanding Insider Threat Risk Decay

This article is a research paper that discusses the concept of risk decay in insider threat management. It introduces the Whole Person methodology, which utilizes behavioral and technical indicators to identify potential risks posed by employees before they escalate into harmful actions. The paper examines how the value of potential risk indicators (PRIs) diminishes over time, emphasizing that different indicators have varying decay rates. For instance, transient technical indicators like login errors have shorter decay periods compared to stable indicators such as personality traits. The research highlights the necessity of incorporating decay parameters into threat assessments to improve the effectiveness of insider threat management strategies. It also presents findings from studies that assess the decay rates of various PRIs, revealing that personal predispositions tend to exhibit little decay, while other indicators may decay more rapidly. The paper advocates for a nuanced understanding of these decay characteristics to enhance security measures against insider threats.