A number of insider threat incidents over the past several years — from the massive leaks of classified documents by the notorious former defense contractor Edward Snowden to the Navy Yard shooter — have revealed critical gaps in traditional background screening methods.
In response, InfoZen, an identity-based screening solutions provider, announced the general availability of IDentrix, a cloud-based technology using sophisticated analytics to continuously evaluate personnel data and proactively alert organizations to potential risks such as insider threats.
Raj Ananthanpillai, InfoZen’s chairman, CEO and president, told Homeland Security Today that a number of insider threats over the past several years served as the catalyst for this technology. With the impact insider threats have on an organization’s brand and reputation, InfoZen developed IDentrix to help organizations mitigate this risk.
“You saw the Snowden case. You saw the Navy Yard shooter. They were cleared for a security clearance, but no one went back and checked whether they should still be eligible for that. Dozens of instances like this have been reported over the years,” Ananthanpillai said.
In addition, Ananthanpillai noted there was an article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal last year about how they found 1,600 brokers with bankruptcy and criminal charges in their background.
“These are the people who are managing your money,” Ananthanpillai said. “These kinds of things were a significant catalyst for what we are trying to do here."
Homeland Security Today reported last year that a cybersecurity survey by SolarWinds revealed 53 percent of defense-only IT professionals consider careless and untrained insiders the top source of cybersecurity threats, even more so than foreign governments (48 percent) and terrorists (31 percent).
"Despite the many rules and system lockdowns in place in federal IT organizations, people are by nature uncontrollable and therefore are absolutely the greatest risks to IT security," said Chris LaPoint, vice president of product management at SolarWinds.
With the damaging consequences posed by the insider threat in mind, InfoZen set out to build a highly scalable system with a very minimal technology expense and zero IT footprint on the part of the customer.
IDentrix provides an alternative to traditional background checks, which are very expensive, time consuming and typically take place every few years or even just once, during the hiring process. Ananthanpillai noted that these background checks often pick up on a potential threat too late.
IDentrix offers continuous monitoring of risk factors from over 65 different publically-available identity attributes including criminal and court records, and relevant financial and professional data sources to keep the risk profile current. When IDentrix analytics identify patterns of risky behavior, automated alerts are sent to the organization.
"People are dynamic, and so is the risk they pose to organizations," Ananthanpillai said. "Not only does IDentrix close the post-hire screening gap, it brings together every relevant data source for analysis, delivering an ongoing, 360-degree view of employee risk. We see a future where individuals earn a ‘risk score,’ much like a credit score, that they can use to validate themselves for non-credit related activities."
According to Ananthanpillai, unlike many insider threat programs on the market which are reactive in nature, IDentrix offers a proactive approach to managing insider threats, and at a cost of less than $2 dollars a person per month. The target market for the new software is critical infrastructure, financial services, healthcare, and transportation.
“IDentrix solves a real problem in the employment screening industry,” said Daniel Krantz, CEO of Real-Time Technology Group (RTTG), which uses IDentrix to monitor its Secure Worker Program. “The biggest vulnerability of RTTG’s trusted communities is the time period between individuals’ recurring background investigations.”
Krantz added, “With IDentrix, our trusted communities will be able to rely upon public records alerts that warrant further investigation, rather than blindly and continuously perform background screening on large populations.”
