The Hidden Risk Inside Companies

What if Employees Use Applications Without Their Knowledge of The Company?

For example, when an employee begins to use a new application to get their work done faster.

Maybe they upload a huge file to an ingeniously free cloud and then send it. Perhaps they move a list of customers over to their personal Google Drive account. Or a team starts using a new project management tool without going through IT

They all sound like sensible solutions at first glance.

But if the company is blind to these tools, there will be a situation called "Shadow IT".

What is Shadow IT?

Shadow IT: Employees or teams in the organisation can use applications, services, or devices that are not managed and controlled by the company.

The term shadow is very accurate for the situation.

The tool is in use, data flows through it and work gets done, but there is no record of any of this anywhere in the corporate system inventory.

A design team might, for example, use whatever cloud service they want to share files. A sales team could hold customer notes in a free SaaS tool. An employee may copy company data into an AI tool for report preparation.

The application itself isn't an issue.

The key here is that the company has no clue what sits inside that application.

How does SaaS Sprawl Occur?

And, as time goes on, the number of online applications being used throughout companies tend to grow. This is referred to as "SaaS sprawl."

One team leverages one tool, while another adopts a different application for the same effort. Before long, the number of varied cloud services proliferates within the organization.

All of these may not be in use actively anymore, but the accounts and thorough data are still kept in the system.

This could be compared to how everybody in an office rents their own locker.

Before long, you have no idea who has what locker, what's in it and who's got the key!

The same problem happens in digital time.

Where does the Risk Begin?

The single greatest problem Shadow IT can create is the risk of a data leak.

Workers upload online to their own cloud account, making it impossible for the company to know where it still controls its information.

The file gets mistakenly shared with the wrong person.

The application account might be at risk.

Files can still be in the personal account even when the employee leaves the company.

Likewise, internal company data pasted into an AI tool can be lost to the standards data control methods.

So when it comes to data security, the question becomes "What systems is the data headed to? is equally as relevant as the question of "Who has access?

We only act agile because employees use Shadow IT.

Most of the time it is not intended.

The employee simply just wants to get his work done faster.

The tool provided by the company could be slow, The limit of file transfer is too low. A new application may seem to be more user-friendly.

That is why, in no way, Shadow IT should be seen as an employee mistake.

If people are regularly working around official systems, perhaps the company tools are shit.

Is the cure to prohibit all things?

Generally, no.

Prohibiting any such app in general could force your employees to find even more clandestine methods!

But there is not sufficient evidence that the approach of this company is useful; in fact, a more sensible method may be getting visibility into which tools are being used and any potentially risky ones.

This can include methods such as application inventory, access control, DLP and SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM).

However, the basic logic is very simple:

Then first, you should be aware of what applications are in use.

It needs to keep track of what data lives in these applications and who has access to it.

Conclusion

Shadow IT typically does not start with a massive attack.

An employee thinks: "Let me upload this file here; it will be easier"  and there it starts from. The issue isn't simply an application but the slow trend of gaining digital RealEstate layer after layer that is layered over your enterprise without you even knowing it.

If an organization does not know where in the world its data is located, it cannot even begin to know whether or not it is really protected.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only; it does not constitute legal, technical, business, or security-related advice.

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