Are your employees using unsanctioned file sharing tools? The top 3 issues you can’t ignore

Are your employees using file sharing tools that you don’t want them to use?

If so, you are not alone. In fact, 65 percent of organizations surveyed reported that they are aware that their employees are using unsanctioned file sharing tools, according to a new AIIM research report. And the fact that the other 35 percent said they are “not aware” of employees using unsanctioned tools is not necessarily reassuring, as this is not an indication that it’s not happening.

The issues revealed in this research report are all very real. In order of impact, these are the top concerns organizations have when comes to sharing content:

Issue 1: Lack of visibility into what’s being shared and where it is located

The top concern – identified by 60 percent of respondents – is a lack of visibility into what users are sharing and accessing.

Unsurprisingly – and likely related to this lack of insight – legal and audit implications were the second largest area of concern, as organizations cannot prove the location of or report on information that they can’t see.

Issue 2: Inability to control who is sharing and accessing your information

A second major challenge identified in the report is the inability to control who is sharing information outside the organization (i.e. employees signing up for online file sharing tools using personal email accounts, etc.). Indeed 49 percent of respondents identified this as a critical issue.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the EXACT same number of people, 49 percent, cited that they are also concerned aboutemployees retaining access to sensitive or proprietary information after they leave the organization.

That’s a scary prospect, especially when your industry is governed by strict compliance regulations regarding the handling of certain data. Data that potentially disgruntled ex-employees should NOT retain access to include things like patient information, credit card details, customer data, company-owned intellectual property, merger information, financial data and anything else of a proprietary nature.

Issue 3: Risk of granting unintentional access

The third major issue circles around the idea of what happens after a user has shared a link to a document or folder. About 40 percent of respondents expressed concern around the concept of shared links never expiring, increasing risk of compromising data, as well asshared links being accessible to anyone who gains access to these links.

Overcome these issues with education

Clearly, there are several good reasons why you can’t ignore issues related to cloud-based document sharing. According to the AIIM study, the top recommendation for addressing this problem can be boiled down to one simple but powerful word: EDUCATION.

By educating your employees on the risks of sharing using unsanctioned tools, you’re taking a giant step toward a safe, secure file sharing strategy.

For more information about effective cloud-based file sharing, visit wclsolution.com.

Post written by GLENN GIBSON on·07/11/2016