The traditional meaning of an insider threat is when a current employee or contractor with authorized access to a secure network intentionally or accidently misuses it to carry out a malicious activity. This type of activity can include sabotage, theft, espionage, fraud, mishandling of data or physical devices, as well as using information to gain a competitive advantage.
An infamous example of this was in 2008 when a city employee changed administrative passwords to gain exclusive access to most of the city’s municipal data.
