Security leader guide

How to build an
insider risk program

A practical blueprint with Phil Venables, former CISO of Goldman Sachs and Google Cloud. What to stand up first, how to keep employee trust, and how to prove the program is working.
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Cover of the security leader guide to building an insider risk program, with Phil Venables
Trusted by enterprises protecting sensitive data, IP, and complex workforce environments
what you get

What you will take away

A blueprint you can start applying the week you read it.
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A program charter
Scope, mandate, and who signs off.
An operating model
Security, HR, and legal in one workflow.
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A detection strategy
The signals that matter, without mass surveillance.
A privacy posture
Employee trust treated as a design constraint.
Defensible evidence
Cases that hold up with HR and legal.
Board-ready metrics
Proof of risk reduction, not alert counts.
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An insider risk program is not a tool you buy. It is a discipline you build, and most of the work is organizational rather than technical.

The programs that last decide up front who owns a case, what evidence is fair to collect, and how they prove to their own people that this is not surveillance.

Phil Venables
Phil Venables

Cybersecurity leader, Partner at Ballistic Ventures, and former CISO, Google Cloud

Partner, Ballistic Ventures

Written for the insider risk problems teams actually have to answer for

The employee who is already leaving
What to watch for before a resignation lands, and how to act on it without accusing the wrong person.
IP and source code walking out
Where your crown jewels actually move, and which of those paths a program can realistically cover first.
The HR and legal case
How to build a timeline that survives a lawyer reading it, and who decides what happens next.
AI and shadow tools
Why banning the tools fails, and what a workable policy looks like when the workforce is already using them.
Contractors and third parties
Access you granted, governance you did not, and how to close that gap without stalling the business.

Questions security leaders ask before they start

Who is this guide for?
Security leaders who have to stand up or rebuild an insider risk program: CISOs, insider risk leads, and the security, HR, and legal partners who end up sharing the work.
What does the guide actually cover?
Why a program, and why now.
The operating model across security, HR, and legal.
Detection that reads intent without surveilling your workforce.
The metrics that show a board real risk reduction rather than alert volume.
Do I need a dedicated team to start?
No. The guide starts from what a single owner can realistically stand up, then shows where to add people as the program earns its budget.
How does it handle employee privacy?
Privacy is treated as a design constraint rather than a disclaimer. The detection chapter covers what to collect, what to leave alone, and how to keep every case defensible.
Is this a product pitch?
No. The guide is written to be useful whatever tooling you run. The programs that stall usually stall on ownership and trust, not on products.
What do I get when I download it?
The complete guide as a PDF, sent straight to your inbox.

Get the security leader guide

A practical blueprint for standing up an insider risk program that earns trust and holds up under scrutiny.
Download the guide
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