We've noted before that companies spend a lot of time and money safeguarding their data from external threats, which is smart of course. But we've also noted that companies tend to downplay the risk of internal threats, which is a bigger threat statistically speaking. A lot of companies have been burned. Countrywide, which was bought by Bank of America, stands as great example.

We've seen a few more instances recently in which top executives led the schemes. But lower level employees are also capable of wreaking havoc, something you must guard against. In the low-tech, non-executive theft department, an ex-EMC testing engineer has pleaded guilty to charges that he stole about $930,000 worth of equipment from the company. He was said to have stashed the equipment in a small duffel bag and simply walked out of the building. He sold the items on the Internet.

And then there's the case of the hacker who somehow compromised Miley Cyrus's Gmail account. That may sound like a scary technical achievement, but the hacker breached the account in a low-tech way. He somehow tricked a MySpace employee into giving him access to the company's administrative control panel, which includes users' passwords. I'm sure there were consequences for the tricked employee.

More companies are waking up to such internal threats. But reminders never hurt.

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