Security professionals consider cloud applications more vulnerable to insider attacks and say insider threats are more difficult to detect since migrating to the cloud, new survey data shows.

In a survey of more than 300 security pros conducted by Cybersecurity Insiders and sponsored by Securonix, 70% report insider attacks have become more frequent in the past year and 21% have experienced more than five insider attacks in the same time frame. More than half (56%) say monitoring, detecting, and responding to insider threats is "somewhat effective" or worse.

Many seem to think cloud applications are to blame: Thirty-nine percent identified cloud storage and file-sharing apps as the most vulnerable to insider attacks, and 56% believe detecting insider attacks has grown "significantly" or "somewhat" harder since they migrated to the cloud. Despite the perceived risk, only 40% monitor user behavior across their cloud environments.

Nearly 70% of respondents said they feel "moderately" to "extremely" vulnerable to insider threats, the top motivations for which are fraud, financial gain, IP theft, corporate sabotage, and espionage. When asked about individuals who pose the greatest risk for insider attacks, 59% pointed to privileged IT users or admins, followed by contractors/service providers/temp workers (52%).

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