In the shadows: the risks unauthorized IT products pose to business

In the shadows: the risks unauthorized IT products pose to business

Companies are at an increased risk of becoming targets of cyber incidents due to the use of shadow IT by their employees amid the growing trend towards a distributed workforce, a recent study has found. According to research by Kaspersky, 87% of companies in the UAE suffered cyber incidents in the last two years, and 13% of these were caused by the use of shadow IT.

A recent Kaspersky study[1] showed that, in the last two years, 11% of companies worldwide have suffered cyber incidents due to the use of shadow IT by employees. The consequences of the use of shadow IT can be diverse in their severity, but they are never insignificant, whether it’s the leak of a piece of confidential data or tangible damage to business.

So, what is shadow IT?

Shadow IT is the part of the company’s IT infrastructure that is outside the purview of the IT and Information Security departments, i.e. applications, devices, public cloud services etc. but that is not being used in accordance with information security policies. Deployment and operating shadow IT can lead to serious negative outcomes for businesses. Many instances were found in the Kaspersky study, which revealed that the IT industry – had