Management and Education of the Risk of Insider Threat (MERIT): Mitigating the Risk of Sabotage to Employers Information, Systems, or Networks

The Insider Threat Study, conducted by the U.S. Secret Service and Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute CERT Program, analyzed insider cyber crimes across U.S. critical infrastructure sectors. The study indicates that management decisions related to organizational and employee performance sometimes yield unintended consequences that increase risk of insider attack. The problem is exacerbated by a lack of tools for understanding insider threat, analyzing risk mitigation alternatives, and communicating results. To develop such tools is the goal of Carnegie Mellon University's Management and Education of the Risk of Insider Threat (MERIT) project. MERIT uses system dynamics to model and analyze insider threats and produce interactive learning environments. These tools can be used by policy makers, security officers, information technology and human resource personnel, and management. The tools help these users to understand the problem and assess risk from insiders based on simulations of policies, and on cultural, technical, and procedural factors. This technical note describes the MERIT insider threat model and simulation results.

PDF [560 KB]

Authors

Dawn Cappelli

Akash G. Desai (Information Networking Institute, Carnegie Mellon University)

Andrew P. Moore

Timothy J. Shimeall

Elise A. Weaver (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)

Bradford J. Willke

This report is related to the following area(s) of work:

Security and Survivability

Technical Note
CMU/SEI-2006-TN-041
March 2007

Cite This Report

SEI:

Cappelli, Dawn; Desai, Akash; Moore, Andrew; Shimeall, Timothy; Weaver, Elise; & Willke, Bradford. Management and Education of the Risk of Insider Threat (MERIT): Mitigating the Risk of Sabotage to Employers Information, Systems, or Networks (CMU/SEI-2006-TN-041). Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2007. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/06tn041.cfm

IEEE:

D. Cappelli, A. Desai, A. Moore, T. Shimeall, E. Weaver, and B. Willke, "Management and Education of the Risk of Insider Threat (MERIT): Mitigating the Risk of Sabotage to Employers Information, Systems, or Networks," Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Technical Note CMU/SEI-2006-TN-041, 2007. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/06tn041.cfm

APA:

Cappelli, D., Desai, A., Moore, A., Shimeall, T., Weaver, E., & Willke, B. (2007). Management and Education of the Risk of Insider Threat (MERIT): Mitigating the Risk of Sabotage to Employers Information, Systems, or Networks (CMU/SEI-2006-TN-041). Retrieved June 18, 2013, from the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University website: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/06tn041.cfm

CHI:

Cappelli, Dawn, Akash Desai, Andrew Moore, Timothy Shimeall, Elise Weaver, and Bradford Willke. Management and Education of the Risk of Insider Threat (MERIT): Mitigating the Risk of Sabotage to Employers Information, Systems, or Networks (CMU/SEI-2006-TN-041). Pittsburgh, PA: Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2007. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/06tn041.cfm

MLA:

Cappelli, D., Desai, A., Moore, A., Shimeall, T., Weaver, E., & Willke, B. 2007. Management and Education of the Risk of Insider Threat (MERIT): Mitigating the Risk of Sabotage to Employers Information, Systems, or Networks (Technical Report CMU/SEI-2006-TN-041). Pittsburgh: Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/reports/06tn041.cfm

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