Employees Engage in Rogue Cloud Use Regardless of Security Policies

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.cio.com/article/721480/Employees_Engage_in_Rogue_Cloud_Use_Regardless_of_Security_Policies?taxonomyId=3089

By Thor Olavsrud
CIO.com
November 13, 2012

Employees are increasingly turning to the cloud to get their work done, 
whether IT has a policy about cloud use or not, according to research 
studies by Symantec and cloud backup provider Symform.

"I don't think IT realizes how much the way we live life as individuals 
has completely permeated the enterprise," says Margaret Dawson, vice 
president of product management at Symform. "This is happening whether 
you want it to or not."

In a survey of about 500 companies across a range of industries and 
sizes, Symform found that nearly 20 percent of businesses have no clear 
security policies or standards around employee or departmental use of 
cloud. Of the 39 percent of IT organizations that say they are not using 
the cloud, 65 percent said they allow employees or teams to use cloud 
services and 35 percent allow employees to put company data in cloud 
applications.

"This research validates how cloud applications and services are being 
purchased and managed increasingly by non-IT departments and illustrates 
the need for IT to reclaim control from a policy and governance 
standpoint while still enabling the business to benefit from the cloud's 
agility and cost effectiveness," Dawson says. "I always advise IT 
leaders to be the centralized source of all IT policy, vendor criteria, 
compliance management and the definition of 'trust' for their 
organizations. Cloud usage is inevitable, but loss of control is not."

[...]


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