15 Eye-Opening Shadow IT Stats You Need To Be Aware Of
Shadow IT —the use of hardware, software, and cloud services without approval from the IT department—is growing rapidly. The global shift to remote work and the accelerated digital transformation led to the rapid adoption of new apps to maintain productivity and collaboration, often introducing new risks and security concerns.
In response, IT teams updated security policies to account for work-from-home activities, restricting access to certain websites and applications, or disapproving of certain devices. But this often results in IT feeling like the “bad guys” for imposing restrictions on employees, and employees attempting to bypass these policies, perceived as roadblocks.
Read more: What is Shadow IT?
This, coupled by the proliferation of online, easy-to-sign-up-for tools, has created the perfect storm for Shadow IT, which has grown from a minor annoyance into a major threat to business operations.
As more unsanctioned apps continue to enter the network, the attack surface expands. To thrive in this environment, you need to be aware of these key Shadow IT stats.
The Rise of Shadow IT With Remote Work
23% of baby boomers, 40% of millennials, and 63% of Gen Z think their workplace tools are unreliable, difficult to navigate, or don’t integrate well with others
Source: 2022 Workplace trends & insights report, Beezy
Shadow IT
in the Cloud
- 97% of the cloud apps in use in the average enterprise are cloud shadow IT
- 30% of cloud apps adopted after the pandemic are collaboration and consumer apps
- 9% more users adopted Microsoft Teams, the fastest-growing collaboration app
- 27% more organizations adopted Discord, the fastest-spreading collaboration app
Source: 2021 Workplace trends & insights, Beezy
User Friction and IT Compromise
- 91% of IT teams felt pressure to compromise security for business continuity.
- 78% of IT teams restricted access to websites and applications.
- 80% of IT teams experienced pushback from users after updating security policies to account for WFH.
Source: HP Wolf Security Report 2021, HP
Home Networks vs. Office Networks
- 91% of devices in remote office networks have one or more services exposed on the internet.
- 15% of remote network IP addresses have exposed cable modem control interfaces.
Source: Work from Home Remote Office Networks Survey, BitSight
Securing the Remote Workforce by Reducing Shadow IT
Today’s workforce is mostly remote, which drives an increase in the use of collaboration apps and cloud services. Evidence suggests the more people work from home, the more comfortable they get with using unapproved technology to get their job done.
Rather than restricting them, IT and security leaders need to empower users with simplified cloud adoption processes and rely on network monitoring tools to reduce risk.
Your team can’t protect what they can’t see, which is why the solution to Shadow IT starts with increasing visibility. As the attack surface continues to expand, continuous visibility into all the assets that could compromise your ever-growing digital ecosystem is the only way to identify and control hidden risks lurking in the shadows.
This, combined with network monitoring tools and security mechanisms, will eliminate the need to turn to Shadow IT.
Read more: How to Build a Shadow IT Policy
Follow these tips to reduce Shadow IT and protect your remote workplace:
- Build an inventory of your digital workplace that brings together the apps and tools your people need, so they feel connected, engaged, and included while they do their jobs effectively from home.
- Develop a comprehensive, flexible, and non-restrictive policy that everyone can follow, so users can better understand your security and privacy standards.
- Keep track of software and hardware components across your network, and detect unknown vendors with access to it, by using monitoring capabilities such as those provided by ThirdPartyTrust and Netskope.
