You have superstar employees who run your business like it’s their own. They use new apps to collaborate with coworkers, vendors, and customers to get work done when it needs to get done. They’re moving your business closer and closer to the cloud. Sounds fantastic! Let them do their thing! But what information is being shared? What apps are they using? Are they secure? Are partners or customers receiving sensitive data that’s not encrypted? Here are a few things to keep in mind as your business accelerates to the cloud.

Businesses Are Adopting Cloud Services Faster Than They Are Being Secured

Employees seeking new cloud services can help you transform the way business is done and improve engagement with customers, partners, and other employees. Most employees are first adopters who are trying new apps to do their jobs in the most efficient way possible. But before you know it, your IT department could become overwhelmed with cloud adoption. This means your organization will inevitably deal with shadow IT as your employees begin using unsanctioned cloud services.

Data Could Be Leaked, Leading to Financial, Reputational, IO, and Compliance Exposure

Do you know what your employees are doing with your business’s data? This is where shadow IT becomes a factor. Not all security controls used today were built with the cloud in mind, especially when it comes to BYOD and IoT. On-premises security products alone can’t provide effective visibility and protection in a hybrid IT world. In a recent McAfee survey, we found that the average organization thinks they use 30 cloud services, but in reality they use 1,935. This disparity is shadow IT—and it’s expanding your attack surface. This leaves your company more exposed to cyberthreats through the use of potentially high-risk cloud services without complete IT visibility or control. Don’t let the risk of shadow IT disrupt your business. Visibility into your organization’s cloud adoption and the devices that connect to these services is a critical step for mitigating the risk of data breaches, non-compliance, and loss of reputation due to shadow IT.

Move at the Speed of Business Without Compromising Security

The future of your company depends on growth and flexibility. Don’t pause on innovation and progress. Let your employees use the devices and apps they have and gain peace of mind knowing that your valuable information is secure. You can place security’s architectural control points on the places where employees work—from device to cloud and in between. You can allow restricted usage of services through application control and still prevent data exfiltration. A cloud access security broker (CASB) can help detect and block instances of sensitive data being uploaded to these shadow IT services.

You can accelerate your transformation to the cloud with IT security as a business enabler. Use security operations—with threat intelligence, management, analytics, automation, and orchestration— as the glue to identify the most advanced threats and crossover attacks. A CASB can be integrated seamlessly into IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS environments to secure cloud services as they are being adopted. Let your employees shine and take your business to the next level backed by an IT department tooled with industry-leading visibility and control provided by our CASB solution, McAfee MVISION Cloud.

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