Bans ineffective in countering shadow IT

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Almost half of users (49%) ignore corporate policies in using public cloud storage services such as Dropbox and iCloud, according to a new survey.

The "Shadow IT in the Enterprise" report carried out by storage firm Nasuni among more than 1,300 users found that the majority come from IT, sales, finance and engineering departments, all being areas likely to have access to business-sensitive data.

Some 33% of those surveyed said that their IT department had a policy that did not allow access to public file sharing services, but of those, 49% still used such services. Also worrying was the fact that 46% said that they did not know what their company policy for file sharing services was.

According to the survey, one out of every five respondents is placing work files at risk in a personal Dropbox account. In the process of leveraging file-sharing services users are storing files outside of the managed IT infrastructure in a solution that does not provide enterprise class security or control.

The frequent use of Dropbox at work, combined with the security concerns, is one of the most troubling aspects of Shadow IT, argues the report. "A critical step in addressing the risks is understanding who in the organisation is leveraging this tool."

Marketing and engineering came out with the highest usage at 43 and 34% respectively, but surprisingly, IT was next at 25%. Among the various levels of workers, director level usage was highest at 29%, followed by C-level officers at 22% and managers and staff at 21%.

"As smart phone and tablet usage grows in adoption," concludes the report, "the growth of Shadow IT will likely continue, fuelled by users’ requirements for anytime, anywhere access to files. Furthermore, policy and education alone do not address the emergence of Shadow IT and resulting unmanaged file sharing and data exposure.

"In order to fully address this issue, organisations must consider providing the tools that deliver the convenient and flexible access to information that users want. Without the proper tools provided, managed, and supported by IT, users will continue to find alternative solutions and work around existing policies, leaving IT in the dark."

TechCentral Reporters

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