Before November 2009 little attention was paid to the silent threat cultivating inside of the U.S. Army. That all changed when a common U.S. Army officer, Major Nidal Hasan, killed 13 soldiers and injured 30 others during a shooting spree in the morning hours of November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, Texas. The significance of insider threats has been reiterated with the shooting at the Washington, D.C., Navy Yard, and the intentional crashing of a Germanwings jet into the French Alps.
These events are significant in that they tragically ended in the death of innocent victims at the hands of those they placed trust in – fellow workers and service providers. In addition to the human cost, we must not lose track of the enormous cost associated with economic espionage, fraud and other deceptive behaviors that – through the appropriate use of technology and legal oversight – could have been detected and potentially prevented.