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File Sharing: The Risks of Shadow Data
File Sharing apps makes sharing data temptingly easy and risky. The benefits of convenience and low cost of cloud-based file sharing have caused many employees to use these services without giving a moment’s thought to any risks that doing so might entail.
An audit of rogue file sharing use in companies, Elastica reports finding millions of files on the cloud that are potential compliance violations, intellectual property leaks, and other kinds of risks from data leaks. The report found that about one quarter of documents shared by employees were made “broadly available” which means that anyone with a link would be able to access the files. About 10 percent of “broadly shared” files were found to be data that should not have been publicly exposed.
Rehan Jalil, Blue Coat Systems and Elastica founder, said that “we’ve reached a point in the security lifecycle where shadow IT should no longer be the primary focus. By now, organizations should have a grip on cloud applications available and have enforceable policies in place with the ability to control which are in use. It’s time to start focusing on the real problems, which are the need to know what types of information employees are sharing, who is able to access data and how to stop high-risk exposures that lead to data breaches.”