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Rogue IT isn’t a new concern for businesses and their IT departments. However, the increase in user-friendly SaaS applications, remote work, and a focus on digital transformation has made it more pervasive than ever.
Shadow IT is naturally common within large enterprises with more users, endpoints, and processes. Unfortunately, the multi-location nature of large organizations is exponentially problematic.
Let’s explore what defines rogue IT, its negative effects, and strategies to limit its risk to a business below
What is shadow IT?
Shadow IT, sometimes called rogue IT, is using any software, hardware, or technology resource on a company network or device without the IT department’s knowledge.
Individual employees, teams, and even entire departments engage in shadow IT. It’s not usually done maliciously. On the contrary, employees are trying to work more efficiently when they use their own tech. Employees don’t realize the risks of using unapproved technology.
What is an example of shadow IT?
An example of shadow IT is when one team or department uses Slack to communicate when the company’s approved chat app is Microsoft Teams. Similarly, it’s rogue IT when each department or office sets up its own project management tool instead of using a company-approved platform.
This category includes using a non-work computer to access and share files, downloading unsanctioned software to company devices, and connecting personal hard drives to work machines.
The most common examples of rogue IT are using or purchasing cloud-based applications without approval. Multi-location enterprises without consolidated connectivity management are the most common perpetrators of unsanctioned tools.
What are the negatives of shadow IT?
By understanding the negatives of shadow IT, companies can mitigate the risks and educate employees on safer technology adoption practices. Let’s review some of the most common consequences below.
1. Security breaches and data leaks
Rogue technologies put the business at risk of a host of security concerns. Without the right approval, security and policy compliance are unknown. Since in-house teams cannot control access and secure logins to third-party tools set up without approval, unauthorized users are difficult to prevent and risk exposing sensitive data.
This opens the door to malware, phishing attacks, and data leaks. Okta made headlines in late 2023 for a major security breach made possible by an employee logging into a personal email account from their company laptop. Reputational damage aside, the incident left 17,000 users’ data exposed. This example shows how the most innocent acts can cause grave results.
2. Inefficiency and resource wastage
Rogue IT creates a fragmented tech stack that can lead companies to overpay for licenses, redundant applications, orphaned tools, and other unforeseen expenses. This not only disrupts budget allocations and future forecasting but also wastes in-house resources.
Core responsibilities are ignored because in-house staff has to spend time finding, managing, and securing rogue behavior. It doesn’t just burden staff—company productivity suffers while waiting for system upgrades, user support, security patches, and similar, for sanctioned platforms.
3. Compliance violations and legal ramifications
Data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA have strict data storage, access, and security requirements. Rogue IT increases the complexities of complying with such regulations, exposing a business to potential fines and reputation damage.
Further, shadow application use leaves a business open to lawsuits. Unapproved technologies lead to violations of international property law for unlicensed software or copyrighted material. Since these apps operate in a data silo, they make responding to discovery requests and regulatory investigations more difficult.
4. Disruption of IT governance
Rogue IT activities severely disrupt established tech governance within organizations because users bypass or undermine existing governance structures.
Introducing unsanctioned software or hardware leads to conflicting protocols and oversight challenges, making it difficult for staff to maintain control and enforce policies.
This lack of control and standardization leads to a fragmented technology environment, where data breaches and compliance failures become more likely due to inconsistent security and policy adherence.
Without established IT governance structures, rogue activities create vulnerabilities to data breaches, compliance failures, and overall business discontinuity.
5. Compromised data integrity and reliability
Employees have more tools and information available to them than ever before, but this can actually hinder accuracy. A report from Gartner highlights the issue of poor data reliability. Over 30 percent of desk workers say they made an incorrect business decision because they weren’t aware of key information.
Rogue IT makes ensuring decision-making is based on the most accurate and reliable business data difficult. When employees use unsanctioned tech, they exacerbate the issue by working outside of the established network with incomplete and inaccurate information.
Final thoughts: Why Rogue IT is bad for enterprises
While it’s clear rogue IT is hazardous to enterprises, its prevalence is expected to rise. Gartner predicts that 75 percent of employees will engage in shadow IT by 2027.
That’s a significant increase from the 41 percent of employees who admitted to such unsanctioned activities in 2022. Given this, businesses must learn to adapt and not just focus on deterrent strategies.
The catch is identifying and managing rogue tech is unmanageable for small in-house teams in global multi-location companies. Outsourcing connectivity management with expert partners is a strategic necessity for many enterprises.
Conclusion
Employees going rogue and using unapproved tools pose significant risks to multi-location companies.
Shadow IT leads to security breaches, data leaks, and compliance issues. These practices undermine the integrity of business data, strain resources, and disrupt connectivity governance. Companies with limited in-house resources must consider partnering with experts to overcome these issues.
Advantage is a connectivity partner that unburdens your in-house teams from managing global connectivity.
Contact the experts at Advantage to take control of your global connectivity today.