Managing the Insider Threat

CHAPTER 6

Deception and the Insider Threat

I tell only useful lies, and only those not easily exposed.

Rex Stout

INTRODUCTION

Trust betrayal is impossible without some level of deception. At the very least, under the most benign of circumstances, this may mean self-deception comingled with ambiguity or equivocation. Thus, the cheating spouse seeking to mask infidelities by openly claiming to have spent last night in an illicit liaison cannot possibly mask the betrayal unless his or her audience engages in the kind of self-delusion that discounts the admission as a tongue-in-cheek remark. At the same time, the one offering such a remark by speaking true words in jest knowingly commits an act of deception by presenting a truth as a lie, perhaps ...