Preventing Wikileaks Type Incidents White Paper

WikiLeaks - the global buzzword today is a rude shock to many, big surprise to some, huge disappointment to a few and a great fun for others. The motive, effects and ramifications aside, WikiLeaks-type exposures perhaps represent the biggest information security threat to Government agencies. Lack of well-defined access control policies and enforcement mechanism potentially lie at the root of security issues like this. Malicious insiders seem to be causing this harm by either illegally accessing the documents or giving credentials to too many un-vetted people who then route them to WikiLeaks or, in fact, any other media outlet. In the backdrop of the WikiLeaks exposures, this paper analyzes the various dimensions of information security, the causes for tight security policies, the need for controlling privileged access and the strategies to mitigate the threats.