Why Defense Contractors Should Embrace Insider Threat Requirements

John Breeden II is an award-winning journalist and reviewer with over 20 years of experience covering technology and government. He is currently the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau, a group that creates technological thought leadership content for organizations of all sizes. Twitter: @LabGuys

October is national Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and I think it’s interesting it shares the same calendar space with Halloween. For many people working in government, the prospect of a security breach or hack is at least as scary as the season’s ghosts and goblins are for kids.

But while ghosts are arguably nonexistent and goblins are certainly confined to the realm of Tolkien fantasies, the danger of a cyber threat is all too real, with government becoming a favorite target of attackers in recent years.

Government has recently been motivated to improve its cybersecurity posture in a sort of trial by fire. The WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden incidents were a one-two punch in the gut in terms of worst-case scenarios. Then, the breach at the Office of Personnel Management that resulted in the theft of more than 21 million personal records brought the threat closer to home for millions of government workers.

Continue reading: http://www.nextgov.com/technology-news/tech-insider/2016/10/national-industrial-security-program-operating-manual-update/132236/?oref=govexec_today_pm_nl