Shadow IT Joins the Cloud Party as organizations have proven out the process of utilizing cloud services. To gain efficiency and flexibility there is a growing problem shadow IT. Some employees may use services and applications in the cloud. Which were not communicated with/for the knowledge of the IT department. Although it may provide short-term convenience, it poses serious security vulnerabilities. And this put an organization even its entire cloud environment at great risk.
Shadow Your Way to Better Security
Reasons why shadow IT is everywhere now:
Accessibility: The cloud is accessible and employees can use any number of individual tools that help them do their job without getting clearance from organizational IT.
Lack of Awareness: Many employees may be ignorant of just how risky unauthorized applications can be.
Frustration with IT Restrictions: Employees feel that IT is stifling and will circumvent slow or overbearing IT policies through the use of shadow IT for a quicker work fix.
According to a 2022 made by Cequence Security, this issue is widespread as it found out that 31% of the observed 16.7 billions of malicious requests were directed at unauthorized applications (Security Intelligence) (Intrusion).
Security Risks
1. Data Breaches
Data breaches: If unauthorized cloud services can connect to the dark web for data dumps. And they won’t respond to security inputs of the organization. In 2013, Target hackers were able to “gain a foothold” in the retailer’s network thanks largely to a poorly secured HVAC vendor (Intrusion).
2. Misconfigurations
One of the top issues in cloud environments are misconfigurations, which often arise due to Shadow-IT. If employees set up cloud services on their own without any IT oversight. They may unwittingly create security holes (open ports or unencrypted data). And attackers could leverage to great effect. A massive data leak occurred in 2022 as a result of an improperly configured Azure Blob Storage instance, reflecting the common nature of this issue (Intrusion) 78 79.
3. Insider Threats
The number one threat associated with IT invasions is the shadow IT parties. Unauthorized practices may bring about severe detriment, which could be due to disgruntled or unwitting employees. For instance, the 2019 Capital One breach was initiated by a former Amazon Web Services employee. Which was using cloud security weaknesses to extract personal information wiz. io).
How to Reduce the Dangers
While dealing with the issues that come from Shadow IT, organizations can take steps to enhance security. And establish a robust culture of cybersecurity, such as:
Use Least Privilege Access: Enable least privilege access to cloud services by using IAM best practices so that employees are provided only the permissions they need: (wiz. io).
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Leverage RBAC to govern access to cloud services and oversee the usage of cloud resources meticulously (wiz. io).
Multifactor Authentication (MFA): Every cloud service should always enforce MFA to be secure(wiz. io).
Weekly Training – Teach employees the dangers of shadow IT and train them on what cyber security best practices look like (Intrusion)anna
Deploy Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs): Use CASBs to monitor and control access to cloud applications, giving insight into security posture and enforcing security policies (wiz. io).
Key Takeaways
Awareness & Training: Ensure that employees understand the risks of Shadow IT. And are aware of the importance of using authorized services.
Heightened Security: Enforce security measures such as access controls, MFA and monitoring for detecting and remediating unauthorized usage of cloud services.
Strong IT Policies: Create and enforce solid IT policies explaining how cloud services can be used, and the steps that need to be taken to request new tools.
The bottom line is, though well-intentioned for improving productivity, the proliferation of shadow IT introduces significant security vulnerabilities. There are serious risks associated with cloud adoption, but these can be mitigated and the benefits of cloud computing enjoyed. And only if organizations take security seriously and promote a culture of cyber security.
