European workers use cloud services for whistle blowing

Wait until you hear what employees in Europe are using cloud services for. Oh, boy.

Blue Coat Systems has polled more than 3,000 workers in France, Germany and the UK, asking them about their cloud usage habits, and, as it turns out, some employees use such services (Dropbox, Box, Office 365, Slack, LinkedIn, Facebook, Gmail, etc.) to store data before starting a new job, for corporate espionage, whistle-blowing and even "personal protection".

Eight percent of employees said they stored data to be later used for whistle-blowing, and those employees are most usually HR professionals (17 percent).

"This research highlights the behavioral traits of employees using cloud applications at work and the risks they expose their employers to through their behavior", commented Dr. Hugh Thompson, chief technology officer and SVP at Blue Coat Systems.

"Most significantly, the job areas that manage the most critical data, such as IT, financial and HR, use cloud applications the most. This sensitive data is often the jewels that hackers are after and want to exploit most. Shadow data, outside of corporate IT controls, clearly remains a major challenge for organizations and data shared on unsanctioned applications requires a proactive approach to ensure employee access is within the parameters of safe usage".

Among the more legal reasons people use shadow IT is mostly collaboration (23 percent), efficiency (17 percent), and remote working (10 percent).

Millennials are most likely to use shadow IT, with 30 percent of 18-24 year olds and 25 percent of 25-34 year olds reported sharing data this way.

Eighteen percent of 45-54 year-olds, and 21 percent of those aged 55+ reported doing the same.

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