Dan Twing, president and COO of analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates, says several important steps can be taken by companies to guard against internal sabotage before it occurs:

1. Create and maintain good documentation for networks and resources used by broad parts of the IT department. That means having tightly-controlled records for passwords and access points, as well as clear documentation for the systems infrastructure from top to bottom, on-premises and off-premises. "There's just so much that isn't documented by IT departments," he says. "Some IT people don't write things down so they can be the hero in an emergency and swoop in to fix things, or they are too lazy to document things and they think that makes them indispensable."

2. Maintain "super administrator" access where possible so your company can maintain the highest level of control over your systems to prevent infiltration. Be sure that this is clearly documented and is controlled by only a few senior and trusted people in your organization.

3. Have fast and clear change procedures for administrative passwords so that no worker can make system changes once they leave the company. If they need access for something, they can be given compartmentalized access which can be overseen by other trusted IT team members so they can do their work separate from the production environment. "The more of this that you do, yes, you are slowed down a bit, but you gain control," Twing says. "There's always a trade-off."

4. Use IT tools that allow you to set thresholds and alerts when there are unexpected activities inside the network to aid in the detection of possible sabotage events. "Remember that you need to be monitoring internal processes and systems as much as you are monitoring your perimeters to keep hackers out," he says. "At least you can stop something internal before it becomes big. Don't just assume that your external perimeter is the only place where bad things can happen."