Top 10 Insider Risk Management Products of 2025

Updated Jan. 2, 2025

These days, your data faces threats from all angles—including your own team. Insider risks loom large, threatening to compromise your sensitive information and disrupt your operations. But fear not. The right insider risk management products can be your secret weapon in this battle. Let's dive into the world of insider risk management and discover the top products that are changing the game for mitigating internal risks.

What is insider risk?

Picture this: You've fortified your digital fortress against external threats, but what about the enemy within? Insider risk refers to the potential threats posed by individuals who have authorized access to your organization's systems and data but may fall prey to the reality of human error. Insider threats aren't just disgruntled employees plotting corporate espionage (though that's certainly a concern).

Insider risks can stem from staff or contractors who accidentally send sensitive data in a message, who assign the wrong permissions to a sensitive file, or who bypass a security protocol for convenience. They can include well meaning, loyal team members who fall for social engineering attacks.

For such seemingly small missteps, the stakes can be astronomically high. A single insider incident can cost your organization millions in damages, tarnish your reputation, and erode customer trust. From accidental data leaks to malicious theft of intellectual property (IP), insider risks take many forms—and they're growing more complex by the day. The entrance of numerous artificial intelligence platforms into the average employee's workflow has allowed teams to drive vastly improved productivity. Yet, because such tools are still new to many, they often don't realize the potential risks of insider-related incidents like Samsung's accidental source code exposure in ChatGPT.

Insider Threat Statistics

The 2024 Cybersecurity Insiders Insider Threat report notes that 83% of organizations experienced an insider attack annually. Additionally, those experiencing 11-20 insider threats was five times higher last year, up from 4% to 21%. It's safe to say that it's time for organizations to dedicate corporate resources to addressing this problem as part of an overall event management program.

The Rare But Dangerous Malicious Insider

Malicious insiders are uncommon, but pose one of the most serious security threats to organizations since they already have legitimate access to systems and data. These individuals, whether employees, contractors, or business partners, can exploit their privileges and knowledge of internal processes to steal sensitive information, sabotage systems, or cause reputational damage. Their actions are particularly dangerous because they're harder to detect than external threats - they know security protocols, understand where valuable assets are located, and can often operate without raising suspicion.

The damage bad actors cause can be severe, from intellectual property theft and financial fraud to compromised customer data and disrupted operations. Consequences for organizations who experience and fail to detect insider threats are so costly ($15-$16 million on average, 125% higher than the average cost of a breach) that they can cause quite a lot of heartburn for cyber security professionals working to prevent them. What makes insider threats especially challenging is that they can be motivated by various factors including financial gain, revenge, ideology, or coercion by outside actors. Organizations must implement comprehensive insider threat programs that combine technical controls, behavioral monitoring, and security awareness training while carefully balancing security needs with employee privacy and trust.

Learn more about accidental and malicious insiders: People Problem or Data Problem? Risks and Mitigation of Insider Threats.

What are the benefits of insider risk management products?

In today's evolving threat landscape, it’s vital to implement an insider risk management solution. Here's why:

1. Early insider threat detection: These tools spot suspicious activities that might slip under the radar of traditional security measures, giving you a crucial head start in mitigating potential threats.
2. Behavioral analysis: By establishing baselines of normal user behavior, insider risk management products can flag anomalies that might indicate a brewing threat.
3. Data protection: These solutions help safeguard your PII, PCI, PHI, secrets, and IP from theft, leakage, or unauthorized access due to internal actors.
4. Regulatory compliance: With data protection regulations tightening globally, insider risk management tools help you stay compliant and avoid hefty fines.
5. Operational efficiency: By automating threat detection and response processes, these products free up your security team to focus on high-priority tasks.
6. Risk mitigation: Proactive monitoring and intervention capabilities help you address potential insider threats before they escalate into full-blown incidents.
7. Forensic capabilities: In the event of an insider incident, these tools provide valuable forensic data to support investigations during incident response and inform future prevention strategies.

We'll explore top technical solutions on the market working to address insider risk management with a combination of tools, each with their own pros and cons and hyperlinked relevant resources.

What are the top insider risk management products of 2024?

We've done the heavy lifting, analyzing features, user feedback, and industry recognition to bring you this curated list of the top 10 insider risk management products of 2024.

1. Nightfall AI 

With the first and only generative AI (GenAI) detection engine, Nightfall covers the hard to reach areas of your attack surface: SaaS apps, AI apps, email, and endpoints with 4x fewer false positives and a 4x lower cost of ownership compared to the competition. This low false positive rate ensures that security teams can focus on real risks without disrupting legitimate business operations. Furthermore, security teams can leverage real-time alerts and automated remediation to address potential insider threats the instant they manifest. Nightfall’s “Human Firewall” feature also notifies employees when they violate security policies, and gives employees the option to self-remediate any violations. 

Data-centric Approach Solves for Insider Threat Challenges

When it comes to building an insider risk program, you have to decide which approach you want to take: monitor the people or monitor the data, documenting users who take actions with data above a sensitivity threshold set by you. Nightfall takes the latter approach, focusing on proactive risk mitigation that won't make employees feel surveilled like many of the employee monitoring solutions on the market.

Why? Because we believe in a world where people can improve their data handling skills in a collaborative design–without compromising the backstops you need in-place to prevent the devastating consequences of insider-related incidents.

Learn how Nightfall helps your people engage as your first line of defense, placing a strong emphasis on self-remediation.

Sign up for your custom demo here. 

2. Forcepoint

Forcepoint provides robust data discovery and classification features, along with detailed user behavior analytics. Forcepoint's insider risk solution focuses on monitoring user behavior within critical infrastructure and enterprise environments. The platform analyzes user interactions with data, applications, and systems to identify potential insider threats. It incorporates data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities, user activity monitoring, and behavioral analytics to detect anomalous patterns that may indicate malicious or negligent insider actions.

Pros of Forcepoint

The system can track user behavior across endpoints, networks, and cloud applications while providing risk scoring and automated response options. For critical infrastructure protection, the solution offers specialized monitoring of industrial control systems and operational technology environments. It includes features for privileged user monitoring, investigation tools for security teams, and capabilities for differentiating between intentional and accidental insider risks.

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Cons of Forcepoint

On the downside, Forcepoint can cause latency and may struggle to detect data types correctly, so if you want to alert on a user's actions in relation to sensitive data types that aren't "tidy" like credit card numbers or SSNs, you are not necessarily going to get that. Some users have also reported connectivity issues, concerns about the product's price point, and occasional slow performance, which can hinder its effectiveness in fast-paced environments.

3. Symantec DLP

Symantec, now part of Broadcom, delivers insider risk management via proactive mitigation of risk to data.  It offers strong data discovery capabilities and flexible policy controls, with more success in finding and remediating exposure to structured data, like PCI or SSNs. The tool monitors and analyzes employee digital activities across endpoints, networks, and cloud services to identify potential cyber security risks from within organizations.

Pros of Symantec DLP

Symantec DLP solution combines user behavior analytics, data loss prevention capabilities, and machine learning to detect suspicious patterns like unauthorized data transfers, policy violations, or unusual system access that could indicate insider threats. It provides security teams with centralized visibility, investigation tools, and automated response workflows while maintaining compliance with privacy regulations. If the data you need to protect is structured and easy to pinpoint, this could be a decent solution for your needs.

Cons of Symantec DLP

Some users say Symantec DLP performance is average at best, with inconsistent protection across various data loss channels. This is challenging for multi-cloud environments and hybrid work environments with disparate SaaS. Users also complain that the product exhibits stability issues, particularly with endpoint agents that frequently disconnect and require manual reinstallation by help desk engineers–a significant challenge for large-scale deployments of 6000+ endpoints.

While email monitoring functions adequately, other channels experience frequent errors with limited troubleshooting documentation. Post-purchase customer support is minimal, and many error resolutions end with insufficient solution documentation provided to customers. Additionally, the tool struggles to identify complex, unstructured, or entropic datasets like passwords, PII, PHI, and secrets.

If you are struggling with SaaS data sprawl of secrets, this is likely not the best choice for your needs.

4. Trellix

Trellix, formerly McAfee, offers advanced threat detection and response capabilities, leveraging both rule-based and machine learning approaches. The platform enables organizations to implement comprehensive insider risk management policies through real-time monitoring and behavioral analysis of user activities. Trellix combines threat detection, security information management, and automated incident response capabilities to identify potential insider threats across cloud and on-premises environments.

Pros of Trellix

Through a centralized console, security teams can manage policies, investigate incidents, and access forensics data. The platform leverages machine learning and behavioral analysis to detect anomalous activities, while providing threat intelligence for enhanced risk assessment and response.

Cons of Trellix

Reviews indicate Trellix's insider risk management solution has several operational limitations that can limit the effectiveness of formal programs, including restricted monitoring channels, challenging performance optimization for busy networks, delayed configurations and updates, and an interface that has declined in quality. Users report issues with false detections, excessive alerts that are difficult to disable, browser screen disruptions during scans, and intrusive pop-up advertisements–a feature that's fairly unpopular with security officers. Users also say the platform's forensics capabilities are limited to specific APT scenarios, potentially missing broader context, while lacking comprehensive personal device and user mapping functionality.

These shortcomings can render the platform insufficient for preventing real insider threat incidents or taking proactive action on insider risk.

5. Proofpoint

Proofpoint's insider threat management solution stands out for its focus on people-centric security. It offers strong capabilities in email protection and data loss prevention. The solution combines user activity tracking and behavioral analytics to detect indicators in insider risk, including both malicious actions and carelessness among insiders. Proofpoint also monitors user interactions across platforms in real-time, employing data loss prevention controls to block unauthorized transfers of sensitive information through channels like web uploads, USB devices, and folder synchronization.

Pros of Proofpoint

If you're already using Proofpoint's other security tools, it might be convenient to use the same provider to mitigate the risk of insider security threats, as well. If you are very concerned about malicious insider breach cases, their employee monitoring approach to preventing malicious insider breach incidents may be appealing.

Cons of Proofpoint

Users complain that Proofpoint's investigation capabilities are limited by its GUI-based filtering system, which lacks a proper query language for advanced searches. This creates drag in operational insider threat programs and reduces contextual information for investigating insider security incidents. This additional time can increase the cost of insider risks in malicious by giving malicious actors more dwell time. The endpoint agent deployment process is complex, while device offboarding requires careful advance planning and can result in lingering ghost devices within the system.

6. Island.io

Island takes a unique approach to insider risk management with its secure enterprise browser. It provides granular control over web-based activities and data interactions.

Pros of Island.io

Customers say the user management is intuitive with multiple integration and synchronization options. Additionally, the admin portal is easy to use and search. They like the browser-based approach to identifying critical insider threats. Island.io can provide useful analytics in insider risk. One benefit of the platform is visibility into users' behavior.

Cons of Island.io

As comprehensive insider threat software, the tool lacks strong DLP functionality. Tools that are focused more on behavior of high-risk users rather than taking a data-centric approach essentially reduce effectiveness to identifying events and require separate efforts for proactive risk deterrence. Broad and effective remediation of data exposure is not in the tool's wheelhouse, save blocking risky activity of internet users. It does not intend to find and remove sensitive data from unsanctioned locations, including cloud apps, personal cloud accounts, and other cloud systems.

Users also complain that the platform exhibits several operational challenges: multi-account Microsoft integration gaps, contract-related delays, and limited DLP controls with difficult exception management and restricted dictionary options. Analytics suffer from poor field organization that complicates alert validation, while inadequate documentation and lack of formal training impede user adoption. Password management presents particular difficulties, especially during browser session logouts, creating access problems within Island's environment.

7. Varonis

Varonis offers a data-centric approach to insider risk management, with strong capabilities in data classification and access governance. It also includes user behavior analytics that can help organizations verify adherence with compliance standards through compensating controls in cybersecurity tools.

Pros of Varonis

Its ability to detect and respond to abnormal data interactions is noteworthy. The platform continuously monitors for indicators of compromise to detect anomalous exfiltration via employees, unusual access requests or permissions changes, and policy compliance incidents such as removing labels or protections from files. In general, cybersecurity professionals with hefty budgets to purchase and hire resources to manage the tool speak well of its ability to help them avoid negative consequences associated with insider threats.

Cons of Varonis

Users report that Varonis' insider risk management platform has an outdated user interface, requires substantial computing infrastructure with additional virtual machines, and generates false positive alerts that delay and distract cybersecurity teams. Other user complaints focus on resource-intensive deployment requirements, limited reporting capabilities, and high costs, particularly for the AI and IRP features. Some note they had to dedicate full-time technology resources and dedicate employees with alert triage experience to manage the tool.

However, some users find the solution expensive and complex to manage, with potential inefficiencies in large-scale deployments.

8. Cisco Umbrella

Cisco Umbrella helps mitigate insider risks by providing DNS-layer security, which monitors and blocks suspicious web activity in real time. With its cloud access security broker (CASB) capabilities, Umbrella identifies unauthorized cloud service usage, helping to prevent data exfiltration or unauthorized access. The platform also features detailed user activity logging, offering valuable insights into user behavior, such as websites visited, times of access, and geographic locations. Through machine learning-based anomaly detection, Umbrella can identify unusual patterns of activity, such as unauthorized access to sensitive data or unexpected browsing behavior.

Pros of Cisco Umbrella

By leveraging DNS-based threat detection, the platform's main benefit to customers is its ability to identify potential insider threats, such as attempts to access harmful websites or command-and-control servers. The visibility into cloud applications–enabled by CASB functionality–helps organizations monitor and control unauthorized cloud usage. With detailed user activity logs and advanced anomaly detection using machine learning, Umbrella enhances cyber security knowledge, allowing administrators to quickly identify and respond to potential insider risks. Its policy enforcement capabilities also offer flexible control over user access.

Cons of Cisco Umbrella

First and foremost, you need to purchase CASB to get insider risk management capabilities. The cost organizations have to shoulder for CASB just to access robust DLP may exceed dedicated DLP budgets, especially for medium or smaller sized businesses. Some reviewers cite frustration with a high percentage of false positives. This hinders insider threat capabilities by distracting security analysts with inaccurate alerts, which can cause legitimate threats or detection of illegal activities to be overlooked.

9. IBM Guardium

IBM Guardium is an all-in-one insider risk management platform designed to protect sensitive data and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements like those in the financial services sector. It offers real-time monitoring of data activity across a variety of environments, such as databases, data warehouses, and cloud platforms, allowing organizations to detect unusual behaviors and non-compliant actions. The platform enforces policies related to sensitive data access, database modifications, and privileged user actions, mitigating the risk of credential theft incidents while automating compliance auditing and report generation. Additionally, Guardium assists in managing security and compliance both on-premises and in the cloud.

Pros of IBM Guardium:
IBM Guardium offers several advantages for organizations looking to strengthen their data security posture. It combines comprehensive monitoring with powerful enforcement capabilities to ensure that only legitimate users have access to sensitive data, reducing the likelihood of internal threats. The platform’s user behavior analytics provide insights into potential risks by analyzing patterns of legitimate user activity and flagging deviations. Guardium’s dynamic controls adjust access rights in real time to minimize exposure to threats, and its advanced rules and alerting system ensures swift responses to potential breaches. By automating key security and compliance functions, IBM Guardium simplifies the management of both security and regulatory requirements, making it a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes.

Cons of IBM Guardium

IBM Guardium has several drawbacks that can impact its effectiveness, especially for organizations in the financial services industry. Users complain that the platform's user interface is outdated and difficult to navigate, making it challenging to locate  information and manage tasks efficiently. Users often encounter issues with the system freezing or displaying errors during simple actions. They also note that while report generation is not difficult, creating policies for alert scoping can be complex and clunky. The installation process also poses difficulties, requiring files to be placed in a specific directory on the server, which can lead to issues if not done correctly.

Additionally, the platform demands significant hardware resources, which can strain systems and slow down performance. The advanced Data Loss Prevention (DLP) features are limited, and the platform's overall usability and support are criticized as inefficient. These issues contribute to a longer time to insider risk detection, and a single user error can potentially create significant disruptions. Moreover, Guardium's high cost relative to its offerings and its subpar cloud security capabilities make it less appealing for many organizations.

10. Code42 Incydr

Code42 Incydr focuses specifically on insider risk management, offering strong file activity monitoring and data exfiltration detection. It provides valuable context around user actions to help prioritize alerts. However, some users have reported a lack of integrations with other security tools, performance lags, and a potentially disruptive setup process.

Pros of Incydr from Code42

Code42 Incydr provides comprehensive monitoring of data movement across endpoints, cloud services, and network resources to detect internal threat actors and risky events. The platform leverages over 120 risk indicators to automatically prioritize threat events based on contextual factors like file properties and user behavior. Through its cloud-based architecture and endpoint agent, the system monitors file movements across local drives, cloud storage, and email while enabling automated response actions through integrations with third-party security tools.

Cons of Incydr from Code42

If you're not keen on user behavior monitoring for its surveillance approach, this solution may not be for you. Many users prefer to avoid monitoring on the whole due to its punitive nature, as it can increase rather than support prevention of insider attacks. The reason for this is that employee monitoring has been known to drive a wedge between employee-employer. This may expand risks to include the type of insider threats that wouldn't otherwise be an issue, but develop a sense of mistrust due to the surveillance program. Further, the majority of insider threat incidents are not malicious or negligent employees but well-meaning workers who simply make mistakes. Cybersecurity solutions that fail to engage end users in a collaborative approach can backfire, never engaging them proactively.

What's the TL;DR on insider risk management?

In a world where cloud computing combined with risky user actions can inadvertently cause users to become your riskiest security threat, insider risk management products can help by blocking threats to your data, adding third-party insider risk detections, protecting sensitive data, and helping you respond swiftly to potential insider threats.

While each product has its strengths and potential drawbacks, the right insider risk management tool can transform your security posture, turning your data and user behavior into your strongest line of defense.

Are you ready to take control of your insider risks and avoid the negative impact of insider threat attacks? Sign up for a demo today to see how Nightfall can help you to stay one step ahead in securing your sensitive data, reduce the cost of response to events, avoid massive consequences, and utilize smart industry approaches to one of the most pressing challenges.  

See Nightfall in action.

Nightfall offers the most advanced data detection on the market, customizable event triggers, and powerful self-remediation capabilities to reduce the overall amount of miscellaneous user errors by helping them create better data hygiene habits over time.

But don’t just take our word for it—read our recent case study to learn about how Deepwatch leveraged Nightfall’s “Human Firewall” feature to mitigate insider risk. 

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