Managing Shadow IT with Microsoft Cloud App Security

Posted on 25 April 2017

Shadow IT – where IT devices, software and services are not under the ownership or control of your IT department – is growing. Whilst this was bad enough when most things were on-premise now, with the growth of the cloud, things just got a whole lot more uncontrollable.

Your employees are likely to be using non-approved SaaS applications, and for these you need to ensure visibility, control and protection. In fact, according to a recent survey by Microsoft 80% of employees now use unapproved apps for work and on average they use 17 cloud apps. What’s worrying about Shadow IT, is that many organisations have no visibility into what’s in use, or whether these apps meet security, privacy, and compliance requirements.

Meet the threat of Shadow IT

Fortunately, help is at hand to fight Shadow IT, in the form of Microsoft Cloud App Security, Available as a stand-alone solution, or as part of the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) subscription, it offers:

  • App discovery – for all the cloud apps in your network, gain visibility into Shadow IT and assess risk (no agents required)
  • Data control – to shape your cloud environment with granular controls and use out-of-the-box or custom policies for data sharing and data loss prevention, and
  • Threat protection – to identify high-risk usage and cloud security issues by detecting abnormal behaviour and prevent threats.

 

Data compliance and privacy ensured

Cloud App Security integrates visibility with your cloud by:

  • Using Cloud Discovery to map and identify your cloud environment and the cloud apps your organisation is using.
  • Sanctioning and un-sanctioning apps in your cloud.
  • Using easy-to-deploy app connectors that take advantage of provider APIs, for visibility and governance of apps that you connect to.
  • Helping you have continuous control by setting, and then continually fine-tuning, policies.

It is officially certified with Microsoft Compliance for ISO, HIPAA, CSA STAR, EU model clauses and more. When it performs content inspection, data privacy is enforced. The file content is not stored in the Cloud App Security database; only the metadata of the file records and any violations that were identified are stored in the Cloud App Security database.

To find out more about how Cloud App Security can help your organisation deal with Shadow IT, contact us.

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