What Do We Know About the Psychology of Insider Threats?

TL;DR

This paper systematically reviews existing research on the psychology of insider threats, highlighting the use of multiple theories, the focus on personal traits and states, and identifying gaps for future psychological studies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of psychological theories related to insider threats and discusses research gaps, emphasizing the need for more robust psychological theorization.

Findings

Multiple theories are used in existing literature

Research focuses on personality traits and psychological states

Gaps identified in theoretical robustness and empirical evidence

Abstract

Insider threats refer to threats originating from people inside organizations. Although such threats are a classical research topic, the systematization of existing knowledge is still limited particularly with respect to non-technical research approaches. To this end, this paper presents a systematic literature review on the psychology of insider threats. According to the review results, the literature has operated with multiple distinct theories but there is still a lack of robust theorization with respect to psychology. The literature has also considered characteristics of a person, his or her personal situation, and other more or less objective facts about the person. These are seen to correlate with psychological concepts such as personality traits and psychological states of a person. In addition, the review discusses gaps and limitations in the existing research, thus opening the door for further psychology research.