When the federal government shuts down, the public sees closed monuments, unpaid workers, and halted programs. What they do not see is the silent surge of cyberattacks targeting agencies already operating on fumes. During the most recent shutdown, attacks against U.S. government systems spiked by nearly 85%. 

Cybersecurity failures during government disruptions rarely start with code. They start with people under stress. Furloughed workers, unpaid contractors, delayed upgrades, and distracted managers create the perfect storm for social engineering and insider exploitation. The intersection of operational disruption and human vulnerability has become one of the most dangerous frontiers in government cybersecurity.

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More than ever, insider threats remain among the most challenging attacks to detect and the most damaging to mitigate. Threats from individuals with authorized access are a critical focus of the CMMC, particularly at Levels 2 and 3, which mandate strong controls to combat social engineering and threats from employees or other internal stakeholders.

This article explores how these foundational standards address insider threat vectors, enabling organizations to better protect CUI in an increasingly hostile threat landscape.

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Insider threats are a massive problem due in no small part to the prevalence of apps, accounts, and systems that employees have to plug into daily. Once you’ve let an employee go, there’s no accounting for how they can steal data using their old credentials… unless you have a proper offboarding plan. 

Here, we discuss why offboarding processes are crucial for preventing insider threats. 

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