PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
UK businesses are placing themselves at risk of cyber attacks as a result of ‘rampant’ use of cloud storage services, according to new research from WinMagic.
The survey, conducted by CensusWide, of 1,000 office workers in organisations of 50 or more employees revealed widespread, and often unilateral employee use of cloud storage services could be leaving businesses with poor visibility of where their data is stored, placing potentially confidential data at risk.
“This survey highlights the challenge businesses face when managing data security in the cloud,” said Darin Welfare, EMEA VP at WinMagic.
“IT teams have had to cede a level of control as employees have greater access to services outside corporate control and this research indicates that IT must take additional steps to protect and control company data in this new technology landscape.
“The wide range of employee adoption of these services also means an additional layer of complexity when devising corporate policies and education programmes for the use of cloud storage services.”
Other key findings from the research include:
– 65 per cent of employees don’t have or don’t know the company policy on cloud storage
– One in 10 employees who use cloud storage services at least once a week have no confidence in the security of their data saved and accessed from the cloud
– Cloud storage use varies widely: 41 per cent use cloud services at least once a week, whilst 42 per cent never use these services at all
One in 20 employees who use cloud services at least once a week, do so despite these services being restricted by their company
Image source: Shutterstock
