Employees can be your strongest defence… or your greatest vulnerability. As insider threats rise, cybersecurity issues grow and bottom lines are hit, L&D leaders have a crucial role in shifting culture and building resilience within. Rachael Tiffen explores how strategic training can turn awareness into action – before risks become headlines.

In today’s fast-paced, digitally interconnected business landscape, fraudulent threats are no longer limited to external hackers or sophisticated criminal networks. Increasingly, danger lies within an organisation’s own walls.

Insider threats, whether intentional or accidental, have become a pressing concern for many business leaders across the UK. Recent research underlines this anxiety, with 50% of senior decision-makers in large organisations expressing fear that their own employees could pose a serious risk to their organisation.

Organisations must take proactive steps to protect themselves by fostering a culture of security from the inside out

The impact from insider threats can be devastating. Beyond financial losses, the reputational damage can be profound and long-lasting, undermining customer trust, stakeholder confidence, and internal morale. Unlike external attacks, insider incidents often go undetected for longer, giving them the potential to cause deeper harm.

In this environment, a reactive approach is no longer sufficient. Organisations must take proactive steps to protect themselves by fostering a culture of security from the inside out. This means going beyond basic training to truly educate, engage, and empower employees. Staff should be equipped not just with knowledge, but with the confidence to act – recognising red flags, reporting concerns, and understanding the role they play in safeguarding sensitive data.

Addressing insider risk isn’t just about operational efficiency, it’s about ensuring the organisation’s long-term resilience and survival.

The insider threat: a growing concern for all businesses

At its core, the ‘insider threat’ refers to individuals within an organisation, employees, contractors, or even vendors, who exploit their access to systems or sensitive data to cause harm. This could be intentional or through manipulation by external actors.

The methods vary too. Some employees may respond to phishing emails and click on malicious links believing them to be genuine, or process fake documents that trick them into downloading malware or releasing payments. Others may be deliberately approached, sometimes in-person or through social media and online platforms and offered financial incentives to share confidential information. That data is then sold or weaponised, often through the dark web for criminals to exploit even further.

In the era of hybrid and remote working, the risk multiplies. Physical separation from the traditional workplace, coupled with a shift in digital trust protocols, makes spotting risky behaviour harder than ever.

What does an insider threat look like?

There is no singular profile for an insider threat operating within an organisation. However, there are behavioural red flags that leaders can help teach managers and teams to recognise. These include:

• Avoiding taking annual leave (possibly to prevent discovery)
• Accessing files or systems unrelated to their job role
• Displaying disgruntled or resentful attitudes towards/about the business
• Sharing login credentials or bypassing security protocols
• Living a lifestyle that seems at odds with their salary

Understanding these risks and how they fit within the broader context of organisational fraud is crucial. The Fraud Diamond model is a useful tool for this. It outlines the four factors that typically converge when fraud occurs:

1. Incentive – financial pressures or personal grievances
   
   
2. Opportunity – weak internal controls or poor oversight
   
   
3. Rationalisation – justifying dishonest actions (for example: “I deserve this/they won’t miss this/I’ll pay it back”)
   
   
4. Capability – the skills and access to execute fraudulent activity

The workplace impact

When insider threats go unchecked, the damage is far-reaching. Financial loss is the most obvious consequence, but beyond money and data loss too, insider fraud creates a toxic undercurrent of suspicion and stress in the workplace.

It all happens much more than you might think, with just six months of 2025 highlighting issues with M&S, Co-op, Harrods and Legal Aid, as well as older attacks on Dixons Carphone, easyJet and the NHS.

That’s why a proactive approach, rooted in education and cultural engagement, is so essential.

Training as a strategic defence

For those in L&D and employee engagement, insider threat prevention offers a golden opportunity to position learning interventions as a critical driver of business resilience. Here’s why training matters:

• Awareness reduces risk: Employees can’t report what they don’t recognise. Training builds awareness of fraud tactics and what to watch for
  
  
• It reinforces culture: When anti-fraud values are woven into a company’s cultural fabric, employees are more likely to do the right thing – even when no one is watching
  
  
• Confidence leads to action: Staff are more likely to report suspicious behaviour when they know how, when, and where to raise concerns confidentially
  
  
• Consistency prevents complacency: Ongoing, bite-sized training ensures vigilance doesn’t fade over time

But it’s not just about the content, it’s also about the delivery. Today’s workforce needs training that’s concise, engaging, and seamlessly integrated into their flow of work. Microlearning, gamified modules, relatable scenarios that can be applied to real-life business situations, and interactive e-learning, are all powerful tools in the L&D leader’s arsenal.

Practical tools and controls to support training

To supplement education, organisations must also implement a wider fraud-prevention framework that includes:

1. Regular fraud risk assessments to identify and plug gaps at the earliest opportunity so they don’t escalate before it’s too late
   
   
2. Robust internal controls, including clear policies around data handling and device usage that everyone in the business is aware of and adheres to
   
   
3. Advanced technology, like multifactor authentication and AI-driven behavioural analytics to enhance security
   
   
4. Continuous vetting across the employee lifecycle – not just at the hiring stage – so any changes in behaviour or emerging patterns can be investigated and addressed
   
   
5. Confidential reporting channels, including anonymous whistleblowing services that encourage staff members to air their concerns in a safe and secure way
   
   
6. Employee wellbeing initiatives, which can reduce financial pressures and create safe spaces for staff to seek help before poor decisions are made

Importantly, these tools work best when employees understand their purpose and feel empowered to use them – a goal that effective and engaging training can directly support.

The role of cross-sector intelligence sharing

One often overlooked but increasingly important component of insider threat management is data and intelligence sharing. Training alone isn’t enough if it isn’t grounded in the reality of what’s happening across sectors and industries.

Access to timely, relevant information from trusted sources can give businesses the edge they need to stay one step ahead of criminal behaviour. For L&D leaders, this means ensuring training materials reflect the current landscape – not just static theory.

Fostering an anti-fraud culture

Ultimately, organisations that effectively counter insider threats are those that go beyond compliance and foster a deep-rooted culture of integrity, responsibility, and vigilance.

Here are some steps for L&D professionals to drive this transformation:

• Build fraud literacy into induction and onboarding
• Refresh knowledge regularly with engaging content formats
• Involve leadership – if executives demonstrate a committed stance to tackling fraud, others will follow
• Use storytelling to humanise the impact of insider fraud and help employees emotionally connect with the issue
• Celebrate positive behaviours, such as responsible reporting and proactive risk management

Train like your business depends on it (because it does)

The rising tide of insider threats cannot be stemmed by IT teams and security protocols alone. Every employee is a potential risk or a potential line of defence.

For L&D leaders and employee engagement professionals, this is a call to action. By equipping staff with the knowledge, confidence, and tools to identify and report suspicious activity, they can help protect not only their organisation’s finances, but its reputation, people, and future.

Insider threats may be a growing concern for many. But so too is an organisation’s capacity to meet them head-on – with training, vigilance, and a culture that refuses to look the other way.

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Rachael Tiffen is Director of Learning and Public Sector at Cifas