But what is Shadow IT? And, more importantly, why should you care?

What is Shadow IT?

In its early days, IT was somewhat prescriptive. Users were limited to the functionality presented to them by the software and systems that they used.  The Internet, and more significantly cloud-based SaaS applications such as Dropbox and Salesforce, changed things radically, presenting users with an increasing number of ways to solve their own IT problems.

From file sharing, to line of business applications, users can now self-subscribe to services, often without the approval (or knowledge) of their organisation’s IT team. This growth in unauthorised cloud usage is known as Shadow IT, and it has exploded as a result of the global home working experiment over the last 12 months.

So What? At Least They’re Working

Out of necessity, users have found ways of sharing documents, communicating, and improving their processes; however, in doing so, they have likely trampled on years of established procedures aimed at protecting their organisation’s data, privacy, and intellectual property.  This has placing many organisations firmly in the firing line of organisations such as the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to name just two.

The End of The Organisational Perimeter

Ultimately, the problem comes down to two things:  the ingress and egress across previously secure organisational boundaries.

Egress is about the unfettered flow of sensitive information to insecure, unmanageable locations.  Think personal email, Dropbox, personal Microsoft 365 OneDrive accounts, memory sticks, etc.  Once your organisation’s sensitive data is ‘out there’, it’s out there forever; regardless of any new policy you might introduce prohibiting it.  You see, the horse has well and truly bolted over the last 12 months, end the problem will only get worse unless you act now.

Ingress is about the loss of control over what can enter your organisation’s cyber perimeter now that many of your employees are working from home, often on shared laptops, using inadequate remote access solutions that were introduced in the dash to home working in 2020.  Ingress is about your organisation’s cyber security footprint; once secure behind central, or branch office, firewalls, and now spanning hundreds of private homes.  These homes are the new battlefront for ransomware, phishing, and social engineering attacks, as users struggle with unfamiliar IT environments, juggle home schooling, and try to find ways to do their job.

5 Steps to Get Control Back

From working with our clients over the years, we’ve amassed a wealth of experience in providing flexible and agile working.  Above all, we’ve learned that you can’t force users to follow the rules, you have to take control back from Shadow IT.  Here’s how:

Offer a Better Experience – The problem with cloud apps today is that they’re, well, really rather good.  To encourage them to use your corporate systems, you need to offer them something that is really, really good.  Microsoft’s Modern Workplace is our answer to this.  It provides a rich cloud-based environment where users can talk, meet, share, collaborate, and access their applications; all from a single Microsoft Teams interface.  You can find out more here.

Re-Establish Your Perimeter – Reduce your perimeter by presenting desktops and applications with Windows Virtual Desktops on Azure, and documents via Teams/SharePoint; bringing your users’ digital workplace back under your control.  You can find out more here.

Apply Compliance Policies – Once you’ve got your data and applications back within your control, you can then apply strict compliance and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies; ensuring that sensitive information does not leave your organisation without your approval.  You can find out more here.

Take Control of Your Endpoints – Laptops are here to stay.  Whether they be corporate or personal devices; deploy appropriate endpoint management to provide Mobile Device Management (for corporate devices), or Mobile Application Management (for personal devices).  You can find out more here.

Educate, Educate, Educate – There’s only so much that technology can do to protect your organisation from cyber threats.  Regular awareness training, coupled with simulated phishing protection, can help to prevent your users from falling foul of cyber criminals.  You can find out more here.

Your cloud strategy is increasingly being dictated by your users’ tactical decisions.  Why not get in touch to hear how WebPorch Solution can help you to make the Cloud ‘strategic’ again.

This is the next generation coming through that are more savvy than most of us in the use of Teams. They might even be able to put a presentation together without the well-known phrase “next slide please”.

I have watched with interest how they use Teams and the first thing to notice is that the educational version looks a little different. Not better or worse than the version we use in business but more geared to the classroom environment.

The debate here is not about the rights and wrongs of home schooling but more about the use of technology to complete the task. Teams is a massive success story in this instance. We might have seen the occasional video blips that poor connections cause, but overall, the calls happen, and the meetings take place.

The tutors and teachers have a register, they can see who is online. They can turn microphones on and off as and when required. They have had to adapt their teaching style to Teams but this is progress.

I don’t know about you but parents evening in the past has been a traumatic event. I am sure it is not much better for the tutors either. Yesterday though, was different.

Normally, your child will book specific slots where the tutors are in a specific room in a building where you have no idea where you are going. When you finally find the right room, bang on time, you find there are 10 people sat on chairs in front of you already waiting to talk.

To be honest, my wife and I did not really know what to expect when having parents evening with Microsoft Teams. For obvious reasons, talking about grades was off the agenda. We had been pre warned (several times) about this. How could they tell us what was going to happen when the Government doesn’t know yet. Other than that, we knew the session would be tutor / teacher led.

So we still had timed slots except that this time, the tutor had to call us. Sure enough, bang on time in all 6 instances, the tutor called to discuss our child’s progress. It was an incredibly slick process and another brilliant use of Microsoft Teams.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones whose children are now at college. This makes them (sort of) self sufficient, in that I don’t have to help them, which is a good thing as they are way cleverer than me and left me behind academically a long time ago. I can empathise with those helping younger ones, and for those on the presenting side, you have had to adapt your teaching style. Having presented many times myself, this is not to be underestimated.

The Microsoft Teams technology though, well this just worked. And worked well.

Isn’t it funny how all our methods of communication have changed over time, from Telegraphs, pigeon carrier, end of the street phone boxes, mobile phones and now handheld video chat?

There is no denying how far we have come developing knowledge and improving the way we do communicate over history. We no longer must write letters and then wait two weeks for a reply, with the evolution of technology; text messages have become our modern-day letters, whilst phone calls have become a lifeline to our personal communities.

While the world is on lock down – through no fault of our own – it seems, we have adapted and evolved yet again to how we interact whilst speaking with friends and family. I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s noticed a change in the way I go about my day to day interactions. I no longer just pick up the phone to call my social circles; I find myself instantly wanting to video chat. In the current world of crazy, this is completely natural; we have been missing the feeling of warmth and being able to interact with other humans – especially those that aren’t our partners, children or housemates!

I am only grateful we have these resources at hand; resources that, only a few years ago we may not have had. It is how we are all coping with uncertain and ever-changing times. Video calling is giving us what we are all missing, interaction, love and a sense of ‘being’ with a person we care about.