Moving to the cloud has become more than necessity, it is becoming with the digital transformation strategy. The cloud is a great enabler for customer engagement, productivity, innovation, and transformation of business model. Strategically every organization is in different stages of their cloud journey.
Most organizations are already a part of the cloud journey with the help of SaaS applications. This trend is known as Shadow IT. Shadow IT is about tackling security issues head-on. Regardless of whether you know what Shadow IT is, you need to learn the right measures for preventing security outbursts.
Shadow IT
To complete things, employees would often depend on applications and devices they are most familiar with—without paying any heed to the security risks involved. However, there is no way to avoid it either. Shadow IT has become the new normal for most organizations. Threat protection, visibility, and control of SaaS-based shadow apps is the first step to manage risks.
If you are a highly regulated industry, then it becomes difficult to manage all the cloud services and applications. One of the biggest liabilities that your organization cannot ignore is sharing sensitive information outside the organization. Once the data has been migrated to the cloud, then the security protection responsibility lies with the organization managing the cloud. Cloud security is usually shared between your provider and you. However, when it comes to protecting data, it is only your organization that is responsible.
How can you protect your business without affecting innovation?
Finding a way to block Shadow IT is not the solution. Employees are smart enough to find ways through restrictions. If there is too rigid control then it will deter innovation, it will conflict with the requirements of demanding and unplanned technology, stifle productivity, and will have an overall negative impact on the organization.
Instead of blocking Shadow IT app usage, organizations need to find a way that offers flexibility and extends security and protections on-premise.
These three crucial steps will help build a plan for Shadow IT:
- The first step to get complete visibility before you addresses Shadow IT. Find out what applications are being used by your employees, when they login, and whether they comply with the organizations security. This will help you understand what the risk level is and how to develop strategies around it—such as uninstalling or blocking the apps—for adjusting to the risks.
- Get complete control over data and cloud application in use. Create some policies around what applications are safe to use at work, and the ideal ways to transfer data on cloud. Meanwhile, ensure that these policies are inline with the organizations regulations.
- Provide complete protection against threats. Decide and define a baseline against the access of cloud applications and their usage at your organization and then understand the patterns that deter the employees from following them. Understand if any of these anomalies are threats and create strategies that will address them.
Microsoft’s Cloud
Access Security Broker
The CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) by Microsoft offers
solutions that help in managing Shadow IT. It extends security to the cloud.
The CASB provides a complete picture of what cloud applications your employees
are using, and give you the right tools for controlling the usage and
protecting the organization.
If you have tried using CASB for your cloud, then we would
love to hear your views about it. And if you haven’t, this is by far the best
security measure for securing your digital transformation in cloud.
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