The Risks of “Shadow IT”

The use of cloud-based services such as Dropbox and Evernote may be contributing to a rise in cyber liability exposures for businesses. While they are convenient, these programs are often not endorsed by the company’s IT program and are inadvertently creating more risk. This “shadow IT” of sharing information casually needs to be addressed in order to reduce Privacy and Network Security Liability.

According to a new study from the legal services provider Consilio, “Risks of Cloud Apps and Shadow IT in the Workplace,” they found that many companies are not protecting against the exposure of confidential information over these applications; Consilio also found that of the 148 legal technology professionals interviewed for the survey, more than 25 percent of survey respondents’ organizations “rarely” or “never” actively address security risks associated with shadow IT, while 45 percent cite that their organization addresses these risks “sometimes” and 26 percent commit to this process “very often,” as reported by Inside Counsel.

Businesses that use these platforms should have clear controls for each. This way, in the event of litigation, the company can easily access the confidential information and control what components are able to be discovered by another party.

Managing director John Loveland stated “Certain applications provide little value with a lot of risk; you should probably take steps to block those applications.” In other words, businesses need to evaluate the necessity for such platforms and identify if the risks are worth the reward. Further, businesses need to be aware of the threat of intellectual property, as well.

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