Outsourcing Information Technology and the Insider Threat

As one of our nation’s top critical infrastructures, telecommunications is an essential element of many aspects of our lives upon which we, as a society, are becoming increasingly dependent. Computers, digital telephone switches, and interconnected information technology (IT) systems impact finances, travel, infrastructure management, and missions of national defense. This research examined whether the trend in increased outsourcing of information technology systems is a significant contributing factor to a reportedly increasing amount of insider attacks. In light of changing social, global economic, and technological conditions, the paradigm in which risk analysis, management practices, and operational and personnel security practices are applied to protect information has shifted over the last decade. A comprehensive model of the discursive nature of the insider threat in the outsourced IT environment was developed using a qualitative grounded theory approach put forth by Glaser and Strauss in 1967. The theory generated by this research suggests a multidimensional real and growing threat resulting from outsourced IT as well as preconditions for continued future growth of the insider threat phenomenon.

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