Programmatic Building Blocks for Mitigating the Insider Threat

Chair: Karl Dewey, Research Associate and Project Coordinator, Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS)

Speaker: Dr. Christine Noonan, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington.

Insider threat is not a new phenomenon – and no organisation or industry is immune from the risk that a trusted individual may purposely or inadvertently compromise security.

Insiders can pose a significant threat to both nuclear and radioactive materials, as they generally possess access rights which, together with their authority and knowledge, grant them far greater opportunity than outsiders to bypass dedicated security controls.

Best practice recommends organizations go beyond the traditional security model of "guns, guards, and gates" by use of a formalized approach to mitigate the insider threat. Uniqueness of critical assets, threat environment, geographic location, and organizational risk appetite all play a role in how an insider threat mitigation programme is designed, managed, performs, and contributes to an overarching security ecosystem.

This presentation will describe common features of insider threat programmes and provide practical measures and resources to build a robust programme to effectively deter, detect, respond, and mitigate insider risk in nuclear and radioactive materials facilities.

Biography:

Dr. Christine Noonan is a social scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington. Her research focuses on optimizing security programmes, including mitigation of insider threats. In this role she leads a group of threat analysts, polygraph examiners, and support specialists who provide expertise in determining the credibility and seriousness of threats to national security assets.

She has implemented domestic and international security programmes with various U.S. federal agencies and serves as a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency delivering courses on mitigating insider threats in nuclear materials facilities around the globe.

Dr. Noonan is an active member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. She received a doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University and has graduate degrees in intelligence, information science, and cultural anthropology.