When we hear the term “insider trading” most people think of the illegal practice of trading a public company’s stock based on material, non‐public information. The image of Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky or Martha Stewart may come to mind. Yet there’s a second face to insider trading: insiders that sell valuable data or privileged access via online forums and marketplaces to cybercriminals.
Forrester recently published a research report on malicious insiders, Defend Your Data As Insiders Monetize their Access. I’ve also discussed how financial industry insiders and cybercriminals trade in high‐value data or credentials on the dark web and on criminal sites on the open web. In these forums, individuals may ask about the best places to sell insider information or claim to be selling insider access. Meanwhile cybercriminals shop for data or use these venues to attempt to recruit insiders.
