Intentional Insider Threats to Data Security: A Mitigation Strategy for Municipalities

Municipal governments are the custodians of large volumes of sensitive information, including personally identifiable information (PII), financial information, law enforcement intelligence, and control of essential infrastructure. Although external cyber threats are the most discussed threats to data security, deliberate insider threats—malicious actions of authorised personnel in other words—are an equally serious but underestimated threat to municipal data security. This paper presents the holistic formulation of a mitigation strategy specific to local government settings. The proposed solution, based on standard frameworks such as NIST SP 800-53, ISO/IEC 27001, and the CERT Insider Threat Model and incorporating socio-technical and risk management concepts, consists of a multi-layered defence. Focusing on active prevention, ongoing surveillance, and organised incident recovery and response, this model is a combination of governance policies, technical controls, behavioural monitoring, and organisational culture reforms. In addition to presenting the model, this paper will cover a number of important ethical and legal issues, particularly the question of how to strike a balance between the privacy of employees and the monitoring required. A gradual implementation scheme and performance indicators are then proposed to guarantee feasible implementation, which is based on municipal budget and regulatory factors. Our study builds on earlier findings that insider risk mitigation extends beyond technology, forming a complex and culture-entrenched challenge that requires an overhaul of present municipal operations in order to instil trust, provide accountability, and enhance resilience.