Which of the following is listed as a threat to IT systems today?

• A. Botnets
• B. Insiders
• C. Hackers
• D. Malicious Code

Answer: (B)

Insider threats are a major risk today because people inside the organization already have trusted access to systems, data, and credentials, so misuse can happen quietly and be hard to spot. An insider can act with legitimate privileges to exfiltrate data, steal or leak credentials, or cause unintentional mistakes that lead to breaches. Even well-meaning employees can accidentally disclose information or fall prey to phishing, making internal misuse a common source of incidents.

External threats like botnets, hackers, and malicious code are real and important, but they rely on breaching defenses from outside. Insiders bypass many barriers because they operate within the trusted environment and often with legitimate access, which is why they’re highlighted as a primary concern in many IT threat assessments. To counter this, organizations focus on least-privilege access, strong authentication, monitoring of user activity, and training to reduce the risk from inside the organization.