Warning: Your Employees Have Your Data in Their Cloud

Our last blog post alerted you to the dangers of combining employees who take technology for granted with a weak (or non-existent) BYOD policy.  However, that's not the only risk a tech-savvy workforce can pose to your data.  A survey by security vendor CipherCloud found that a jaw dropping 86 percent of cloud applications being used in the enterprise, from filesharing, storage, and email to highly risky social media and publishing, were unsanctioned by IT.

If your employees are tempted by this "shadow cloud," give them credit for good intentions.  Cloud services have become so ubiquitous and easy to use that they're a convenient way to boost productivity and efficiency.  Unfortunately, they also put company data into the public cloud, where your IT team can't monitor or control it.

What to do?  Half the answer is to give your employees the tools they need instead of leaving them to develop their own workarounds.  The other half is to reinforce your control over where your data goes and how employees access it.  For expert advice on both, including alternatives to the public cloud and BYOD strategy, give us a call.

Millennials and Security: Are Your Newest Hires a Security Risk?

Hard to believe, with plenty of Baby Boomers still in the workplace, but the oldest members of Generation X start turning 50 this year.  And just as it's never too soon to start planning for retirement, it's not too soon to start adjusting your network security for a mostly Millennial workforce.

It's not that the generation now pouring into the workforce doesn't understand technology.  Just the opposite: they have no memory of life before the Internet.  Digital technology is the bedrock on which their lives are built, personally and professionally.  But maybe because they take tech so much for granted , data security isn't high on their list of priorities.  In fact, a recent survey from TrackIT reveals that 50 percent of Millennials bring personal apps into the workplace on their mobile devices — and that 60 percent of them aren't concerned about the impact of personal apps on corporate security.

We call this s wake-up call.  If you don't have a strong BYOD strategy, you need to put one in place before problems start popping up.  More than that, since the next generation of employees seems to think policies and procedures are primarily barriers to dodge, your strategy needs to rely heavily on technology.  If you aren't sure where to start, call us.  We have plenty of experience with our own Millennial employees!