Danger lurks in the shadows: the darker side BYOD

Grazed from Computing.co.uk. Author: John Leonard.

Shadow IT – the bypassing of the IT department by employees who set up their own systems – is the inevitable consequence of the ease of use and quick deployment enabled by the cloud. Given the choice between waiting for days or weeks for the IT department to configure the CRM system to suit their needs, or ordering something over the web with a credit card (or even for free) that can be used immediately and turned off again afterwards, it is obvious which will win. And the consequences be damned.

But the consequences of shadow IT can be serious. As with other trends driven by consumerisation, such as bring your own device (BYOD), shadow IT leaves the IT department between a rock and a hard place: it does not want to be seen as a progress-denying jobs-worth, but neither can it afford to preside over the sort of free-for-all that is the logical conclusion of the boom in self-service IT, an outcome that could have seriously negative repercussions for the company – and the IT leader’s job…

Data protection is, of course, of primary and growing importance. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has powers to impose punitive fines and, in extreme cases of negligence, even prosecute directors, and that’s before we start considering the damage to reputation that can be the result of a serious breach…

Read more from the source @ http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/analysis/2306123/danger-lurks-in-the-shadows-the-darker-side-of-byod