What Is Shadow IT?
Shadow IT refers to using information technology systems, devices, software, applications, and services without explicit IT department approval or knowledge. This occurs when employees use unauthorized IT tools that help them work more efficiently or overcome approved system limitations.
Since shadow IT operates outside an organization’s security controls and governance framework, this practice can lead to data breaches, compliance violations, and unexpected security exposures.
The scale of the issue is growing. By 2027, Gartner predicts that 75% of employees will acquire, modify, or create technology outside IT’s visibility. This was reported in an earlier report by Forrester in 2022, which found that the average business has 30% more cloud assets than IT or security teams knew about.
What Are the Examples of Shadow IT?
Let’s take a look at some specific examples of shadow IT that can fall outside the visibility of IT and InfoSec teams.
1. Unsanctioned IT Assets
Every organization has procedures in place for creating new IT infrastructures. Unfortunately, end-users do not always adhere to these procedures. Whenever new IT assets are created without permission, it is known as an unsanctioned IT infrastructure.
Examples:
- The marketing department is preparing for a new campaign and needs several subdomains and websites.
- Instead of going through IT, the digital marketing team independently spins up and deploys these assets.
- Initially, the sites are secure and use up-to-date software.
- After the campaign ends, the sites are forgotten and left unmanaged.
- Over time, they become vulnerable due to outdated or deprecated software.
2. Forgotten Infrastructure
Forgotten infrastructure is the IT assets that were supposed to be decommissioned but, for one reason or another, never were. It could be an old domain, an application that is no longer in use, or a web server hosting a website that should be taken offline.
Examples:
- An employee assumes an old asset was deleted or fails to complete the deletion process.
- Alternatively, the request to decommission the asset was never made.
- In large enterprises, where IT assets are constantly added and removed, these forgotten assets contribute significantly to shadow IT.
3. Misconfigurations
Misconfigurations lead to some IT assets that should be internal (meaning that the asset should be protected by a subnet that is not accessible from the public Internet) being accidentally exposed externally.
Examples:
- A database engineer may accidentally configure a database with sensitive information to be accessible from the internet.
- While the enterprise is aware of the database, they may not realize it’s publicly exposed, making it a major security risk.
4. Automated Cloud Instances
One of the major value drivers for cloud adoption is that businesses only pay for the resources they need and when they need them. However, automation failures and configuration errors can introduce shadow IT risks.
Examples:
- More cloud infrastructure is automatically spun up and deployed at peak usage times. When the load falls, the extra cloud instances are taken offline automatically.
- However, a configuration error prevents this, and the instances remain active without the knowledge of the IT and InfoSec teams, unmanaged and vulnerable.
Another good example:
- Developers use ephemeral environments such as build services.
- These environments should be deleted immediately after. However, user error may prevent this.
- The environment persists, becoming part of your shadow IT footprint.
What Are the Security Risks Created by Shadow IT?
Shadow IT risks are multifaceted and introduce significant security vulnerabilities that can have severe consequences for your organization, including:
1. Data Loss and Leakage
Unauthorized applications often lack proper security controls, making sensitive information vulnerable to breaches. Company data can easily fall outside your protection perimeter when employees use unsanctioned cloud storage or file-sharing services.
2. Compliance Violations
Shadow IT may operate outside regulatory frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS. Handling regulated data through unauthorized channels creates significant legal and financial risks.
3. Ineffective Security Patching
IT teams can’t patch or update systems they don’t know exist. Unmanaged shadow IT resources often run outdated software with known vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.
4. Potential Entry Points for Attackers
Every unmanaged device or application represents a potential foothold for attackers. These shadow systems typically lack proper monitoring, creating blind spots in your security posture.
5. Integration Complications
Shadow IT solutions rarely integrate well with approved systems, creating data silos, inefficiencies, and potential security gaps at connection points.
Case in point: A LockBit ransomware attack penetrated a victim’s network in just four hours through a forgotten remote desktop tool (RDP). The tool which was part of the organization’s shadow IT and had been left accessible due to forgotten vendor access and legacy infrastructure no longer tracked by the IT team.
Group-IB’s incident response teams frequently encounter scenarios in which unknown or unmanaged assets become entry points for attacks.
How To Discover and Manage Shadow IT?
Every large organization knows that it has shadow IT—they just don’t know how much, what types of assets it contains, where in the network it resides, and so on. The challenge is identifying and eliminating it.
Here’s how you can effectively address shadow IT in your organization:
1. Network Monitoring and Analysis
Implement tools that can detect unauthorized applications and services operating on your network. Look for unusual traffic patterns, unknown devices, and unexpected data transfers.
2. Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASBs)
Deploy CASBs to monitor cloud service usage across your organization. These tools help identify unauthorized SaaS applications and provide visibility into how users interact with cloud resources.
3. Asset Discovery Scans
Regularly scan your network infrastructure to identify unregistered devices, servers, and services. Compare these findings against your official IT inventory to spot discrepancies so you can tackle them before they lead to breaches.
4. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Solutions
Data Loss Prevention tools can help identify sensitive information flowing to unauthorized applications or storage locations, providing early warning of shadow IT risks.
5. Employee Education
Establish clear channels for technology requests while raising awareness about the risks of shadow IT. When employees understand the dangers and the proper procedures, they’re more likely to follow protocols.
6. Create a Streamlined Approval Process
Many employees turn to shadow IT because official procurement is too slow or restrictive. By creating faster, more responsive approval workflows, you can reduce the temptation to bypass official channels.
7. Implement a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) Policy
Rather than fighting against personal device usage, create acceptable usage guidelines and approved software for employee-owned devices. This will reduce employee reliance on unauthorized tools and limit shadow IT proliferation.
Understanding Why Employees Turn To Shadow IT
Shadow IT is often a byproduct of friction between employees and official IT processes. When the sanctioned systems don’t meet their needs, they seek out alternative tools and platforms to get things done. To fully understand the problem, it’s essential to look at the reasons why, so you can effectively minimize shadow IT risks.
Why employees turn to shadow IT:
- Slow processes: Employees may face delays when requesting new tools. Tight deadlines can exacerbate this and push them to seek quick alternatives.
- Misfit tools: Standardized systems may not fit the needs of certain teams, pushing them to find something better suited to their needs.
- Lack of awareness: Employees might not realize they’re using shadow IT. Signing up for free tools or unapproved services is often perceived as a simple way to solve problems.
- Drive to innovate: A culture that values innovation can inadvertently lead teams to bypass processes, resulting in shadow IT becoming part and parcel of daily operations.
Impact of Shadow IT on Regulatory Compliance
Shadow IT creates significant legal and operational risks for organizations across industries. Unauthorized systems frequently bypass security controls required by regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, and industry-specific mandates.
When employees process sensitive information through unapproved channels, your organization could face potential fines, legal penalties, and reputational damage.
For example, using unauthorized cloud storage for patient data directly violates HIPAA security requirements, while processing European customer information through non-compliant shadow systems violates GDPR principles.
The compliance challenges include:
- Documentation gaps: Shadow IT creates undocumented data flows that undermine compliance reporting
- Audit failures: Regulators expect complete visibility into all systems processing regulated data
- Data sovereignty issues: Unauthorized cloud services may store information in prohibited geographic regions
- Breach notification complications: Shadow systems can delay incident detection and required disclosures
- Deletion and retention problems: Information stored in shadow systems often escapes proper lifecycle management
Manage Shadow IT with Group-IB Attack Surface Management
Shadow IT continues to be a major security risk for businesses. Managing these risks requires comprehensive visibility into your entire digital footprint. Group-IB’s Attack Surface Management (ASM) solution provides the continuous discovery and monitoring capabilities you need to identify and secure shadow IT resources before they become security liabilities.
ASM automatically discovers your organization’s digital assets, including those created without IT department approval. The platform’s continuous monitoring capabilities alert you to new shadow IT elements as they appear, helping you maintain complete visibility across your entire attack surface.
Key capabilities to combat shadow IT include:
- Improved visibility: Discover all external assets, including shadow IT, forgotten infrastructure, and misconfigurations
- Continuous discovery: Automate IT asset discovery and continuously map out your organization’s external attack surface
- Prioritized remediation guidance: Focus on addressing the most critical shadow IT risks first
Additionally, by combining Group-IB ASM with Business Email Protection solutions, you can also safeguard against shadow IT risks that emerge through email channels, such as unauthorized file-sharing links or unapproved cloud service invitations.
Explore how Group-IB’s Attack Surface Management (ASM) helps organizations like yours handle the risks posed by shadow IT.