4 steps to managing shadow IT

Shadow IT is on the rise. More than 80 percent of employees report using apps that weren’t sanctioned by IT. Shadow IT includes any unapproved hardware or software, but SaaS is the primary cause in its rapid rise. Today, attempting to block it is an outdated, ineffective approach. Employees find ways around IT controls.

How can you empower your employees and still maintain visibility and protection? Here are four steps to help you manage SaaS apps and shadow IT.

Step 1: Find out what people are actually using

The first step is to get a detailed picture of how employees use the cloud. Which applications are they using? What data is uploaded and downloaded? Who are the top users? Is a particular app too risky? These insights provide information that can help you develop a strategy for cloud app use in your organization, as well as indicate whether an account has been compromised or a worker is taking unauthorized actions.

Step 2: Control data through granular policies

Once you have comprehensive visibility and understanding of the apps your organization uses, you can begin to monitor users’ activities and implement custom policies tailored to your organization’s security needs. Policies like restricting certain data types or alerts for unexpectedly high rates of an activity. You can take actions when there are violations against your policy. For instance, you can take a public link and make it private or create a user quarantine.

Step 3: Protect your data at the file level

Protecting data at the file level is especially important when data is accessed via unknown applications. Data loss prevention (DLP) policies can help ensure that employees don’t accidentally send sensitive information, such as personally identifiable information (PII) data, credit card numbers, and financial results outside of your corporate network. Today, there are solutions that help make that even easier.

Step 4: Use behavioral analytics to protect apps and data

Through machine learning and behavioral analytics, innovative threat detection technologies analyze how each user interacts with the SaaS applications and assess the risks through deep analysis. This helps you to identify anomalies that may indicate a data breach, such as simultaneous logons from two countries, the sudden download of terabytes of data, or multiple failed-logon attempts that may signify a brute force attack.

Where can you start?

Consider a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB). These solutions are designed to help you achieve each of these steps in a simple, manageable way. They provide deeper visibility, comprehensive controls, and improved protection for the cloud applications your employees use—sanctioned or unsanctioned.

To learn why CASBs are becoming a necessity, read our new e-book. It outlines the common issues surrounding shadow IT and how a CASB can be a helpful tool in your enterprise security strategy.

Read Bring Shadow IT into the Light.

 

from Microsoft Secure Blog Staff