baselineRFIWhat behavioral baseline methodology does the platform use to detect anomalous insider activity — per-user/per-peer-group baselining, and how long does it take after deployment to establish a reliable baseline before alerts become trustworthy?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Look for a stated baselining period and peer-group comparison (not just absolute thresholds) — alerts fired before a reliable baseline exists are mostly noise.
baselineRFPDescribe data-exfiltration detection specifically — unusual bulk downloads, off-hours access to sensitive repositories, USB/cloud-upload activity spikes preceding a resignation — with a customer-referenced real-world detection example.weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Pre-departure data exfiltration is the classic insider-threat scenario; look for a described detection pattern and a real customer example, not a generic 'anomaly detection' claim.
baselineRFIHow does the platform balance privacy and employee monitoring — is monitoring risk-triggered/scoped versus blanket surveillance of all employees, and what employee-facing transparency or legal/HR review process does the vendor recommend?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Blanket surveillance creates legal and cultural risk in many jurisdictions; look for risk-based, scoped monitoring and vendor guidance on legal/HR involvement, not a product that assumes unrestricted monitoring is acceptable everywhere.
baselineRFIWhat data sources feed the insider-threat model — DLP events, identity/access logs, HR system signals (e.g., resignation, PIP status), endpoint activity, email/chat content — and which of these require separate licensing or integration work?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
HR-signal integration (flight risk indicators) is a differentiator many products lack; look for a real integration list and clarity on what requires additional licensing.
baselineRFPDetail case management and investigation workflow — when an alert fires, what evidence is automatically compiled for an investigator, and is there a legally defensible chain-of-custody for evidence that might support termination or legal action?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Insider-threat findings often lead to HR/legal action — look for defensible evidence handling (chain of custody, tamper-evident logging), not just a dashboard alert with no investigation support.
baselineRFIHow does the platform distinguish malicious insider activity from negligent/accidental risk (e.g., misconfigured sharing settings) versus a genuinely compromised account behaving like an insider threat?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
These three scenarios need different responses; look for the platform explicitly differentiating intent/cause rather than treating all anomalies identically.
baselineRFPExplain third-party and contractor coverage — does the model extend to non-employee accounts with system access (contractors, vendors, service accounts), which often have less oversight than full-time employees?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Contractors and service accounts are a common blind spot with real incident history — look for explicit coverage, not an employee-only model.
baselineRFIWhat is the alert volume and precision in practice — roughly how many actionable alerts per week should a security team of our size expect, and what tuning controls exist to keep the program sustainable rather than generating alert fatigue?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Insider-threat programs commonly fail from alert fatigue; look for a realistic volume expectation and real tuning controls, not an implicit assumption of unlimited analyst capacity.
baselineRFIWhat is the pricing model — per employee monitored, per data source integrated, or a flat enterprise tier — and how does cost scale as monitoring coverage expands to more data sources and a growing workforce?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Look for transparent, predictable scaling economics; a vendor unable to project cost at meaningfully broader monitoring scope creates real budget risk.
baselineRFPWhat legal/compliance review process does the vendor recommend before deploying employee monitoring, particularly for jurisdictions with strict labor-law requirements around employee surveillance (e.g., EU works-council consultation requirements), and can they provide guidance materials or legal-review templates?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Employee monitoring has real, jurisdiction-specific legal requirements — a vendor with mature deployment experience should offer concrete guidance materials, not leave the customer to figure out legal compliance entirely on their own.
baselineRFIDoes the platform verify that a departed employee's access was actually and completely revoked post-termination (cross-referencing offboarding actions against continued access attempts), distinct from pre-termination resignation-period risk scoring?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Post-termination access-revocation verification is a distinct, valuable capability from pre-termination risk scoring — ask for a specific answer on whether the platform closes this loop rather than only watching for risk signals before departure.
baselineRFIWho within the security/HR organization gets access to insider-threat findings, and is there a strict, documented role-based access model given how sensitive and potentially career-affecting this monitoring data is for the individuals involved?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Insider-threat findings are uniquely sensitive personal data with real employment consequences — ask for a specific, strict access-control model, not just a general RBAC claim.
baselineRFPWhat is the measured false-positive rate in practice, and what is the vendor's guidance on managing the real employee-trust and morale impact of a false accusation before it's corrected, given the severity of being wrongly flagged as a potential insider threat?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
A false positive here has real human consequences beyond typical security-tool false positives — ask for both a real accuracy figure and specific guidance on managing the human impact of an incorrect flag.
baselineRFIOnce a confirmed malicious insider is identified, what is the platform's support for the handoff to HR, Legal, and potentially law enforcement — does it produce a legally defensible evidence package suitable for a real termination or legal proceeding, and has this been tested in an actual case?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Ask for a real case example where the evidence package was actually used in a termination or legal proceeding, not just a theoretical claim of 'legally defensible' evidence.
baselineRFIHow does the platform's monitoring approach adapt for international deployments where employee-monitoring laws vary significantly by country — can monitoring scope and intensity be configured per-jurisdiction, or is there only one global monitoring policy?weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Employee-monitoring legality varies substantially by country — a vendor should support genuine per-jurisdiction policy configuration, not force one global monitoring posture that may be illegal in some regions.
baselineRFPDetail historical trend reporting on program effectiveness (confirmed-incident count, false-positive rate trend, alert-volume trend) over time, suitable for demonstrating to leadership that the program is sustainable and delivering real value, not just generating noise.weight 3
Answer key — what a strong answer shows
Trend-over-time program-effectiveness reporting is a distinct capability from individual alert investigation — confirm this exists as a maintained, exportable report.
baselineRFPSubmit the vendor's insider threat program (per NIST 800-53 controls PM-12, IR-4(6), IR-4(7), SI-4(12)) to the organization's Chief Privacy Officer and CISO within 90 days of contract effective date.weight 3
baselineRFPThe Solution should detect threats from various attack vectors (malware, web application attacks, network attacks, watering hole attacks, DNS attacks, insider threat, data exfiltration) using machine learning across a minimum set of sources: Netflow, IPS/IDS, Proxy, WAF, Windows logs, DNS, FW.weight 3
baselineRFPProvide user behaviour analysis to identify potential internal and external threats; assist the Bank's active participation in cyber drills conducted under CERT-In/IDRBT; coordinate with internal/external contact groups to monitor, analyze and escalate security incidents, developing protect/detect/respond/recover capability for cyber-attacks.weight 3
baselineRFPDo you restrict and monitor your employee access to data 24x7?weight 3
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