Keeping Up With Security Needs Cloud Apps Create

Cloud app security

Keeping Up With Security Needs Cloud Apps Create

Firms have on average 100,000 files with sensitive data stored in the public cloud and 4,000 instances of exposed credentials—all potential security risks.

Risky Credentials

On average, 4,000 files at each organization are stored in public cloud apps containing credentials (usernames and passwords) to corporate systems.

Policy Violations

25% of employees violate corporate data security policy in public cloud applications.

Higher Organizational Threats

45,000 third-party app installs are conducted by privileged users or super-administrators, posing a higher security threat.

Biggest Worries

65% of organizations worry about what type of sensitive data is exposed, while 35% are concerned about where the information is exposed as a starting point for their cloud security strategy.

Data Exposure

Organizations are most concerned about are intellectual property (59%), followed by PCI data/credit card data (19%), and personally identifiable information (PII)/social security numbers (13%).

Sharing Files

70% of external file sharing is done with non-corporate email addresses, such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail. Organizations collaborate with 865 other organizations on average.

App Installs Rise

The number of third-party apps enabled per organization jumped fourfold—from 130 in Q4 ’14 to 475 in Q1 ’15. The total number of unique third-party cloud apps rose to 77,000, accounting for 2.5 million installs.

Popular Third-Party Apps

The top unique apps installed at organizations focus on business productivity (37%), gaming/entertainment/non-productivity (37%), and social and communications (26%).

Banned Apps

More than half the third-party apps assessed in 2015 were banned due to security concerns. The primary reasons for banning: inappropriate apps (46%), vendor is not trustworthy (30%) and excessive access (24%).