When Shadow IT becomes a risk: why CASB is the strategic answer.
Shadow IT has become a central issue in corporate cybersecurity strategies. This term refers to digital practices that are not supervised by the IT department: unauthorized use of cloud applications, file sharing on personal platforms, unapproved instant messaging, etc. These practices are often motivated by legitimate needs for responsiveness and collaboration, but they pose major risks to security, compliance, and data sovereignty.
An explosion in cloud usage... and the associated risks
Shadow IT refers to the use of hardware, software, or cloud services without approval or oversight from the IT department. The most common example is the use of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) services such as Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, or Trello by employees who want to increase their efficiency but bypass institutional tools.
This phenomenon exploded with:
- The widespread use of cloud computing and collaborative tools,
- Teleworking,
- The consumerization of IT and BYOD (users bringing their personal habits into the professional environment),
- Easy access to online applications.
According to several studies, up to 80% of cloud applications used in a company are unknown to the IT department. This figure is staggering.
What are the risks associated with shadow IT?
Even though shadow IT often stems from good intentions (saving time, being more agile and productive), it is a wide-open door for cyber threats. The main risks are:
1. Data leaks
When documents are stored on unvalidated services, confidentiality is no longer guaranteed. Who can access this data? Where is it hosted? Is it encrypted? In many cases, the company loses control.
2. Regulatory non-compliance
Using uncontrolled services exposes the company to violations of the GDPR or other industry standards. Without governance, it becomes impossible to guarantee the traceability or erasure of personal data. An example would be storing personal data in an undocumented SaaS CRM.
3. Malware propagation
Unsecured platforms can serve as vectors for ransomware or phishing attacks. Users think they are working efficiently, but unwittingly become a weak link.
4. Data fragmentation and financial sub-optimization
Increasing the number of tools causes information silos to explode. Data becomes scattered, redundant, and even inconsistent, which hinders overall performance.
Shadow IT is often invisible to the IT department, making it difficult to detect. What's more, it is based on human logic that is difficult to counteract: employees want tools that are simple, accessible, and mobile.
Attempting to eliminate it through restrictive policies is often counterproductive: it encourages workarounds and creates a divide between IT and business departments.
The challenge is therefore not to ban everything, but to understand, map, regulate, and support usage.
But the good news is that shadow IT is no longer an abstract concept: it is measurable, traceable, and controllable. Thanks to CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) solutions such as those offered by Olfeo, companies now have a clear view of unregulated digital usage within their organizations.
What is a CASB?
The term CASB, which stands for Cloud Access Security Broker, refers to a solution that sits between a company's users and the cloud services they access. It acts as a security mediator: it observes, controls, and protects interactions with cloud applications, while ensuring compliance with the company's security policies.
CASBs are positioned according to four main pillars, defined by Gartner:
- Visibility: Identify all cloud applications in use, including those not approved by the IT department (shadow IT), as well as the data that passes through them.
- Compliance: ensuring that the use of cloud applications complies with regulatory requirements (GDPR, NIS2, HIPAA, etc.).
- Data security: prevent data leaks, encrypt or anonymize sensitive information, control inappropriate sharing.
- Threat protection: Detect suspicious behavior, compromised accounts, or malware transiting through cloud services.
Why adopt a CASB solution?
1. Regain control over shadow IT
One of the major benefits of a CASB is its ability to detect applications used outside the official framework. This shadow IT poses a considerable threat: sensitive data transferred to unsecured services, lack of traceability, legal risks in the event of a leak or attack, etc. Thanks to CASB, the IT department can accurately map cloud usage, assess the level of risk for each application, and define appropriate usage policies (allow, restrict, block, etc.).
2. Strengthen data security
In a cloud environment, data leaves the company's perimeter. It can be shared, stored, or modified on external services, sometimes without any control. CASBs enable real-time monitoring of sensitive data flows, alerting in the event of anomalies, and implementing protection mechanisms (encryption, masking, DLP). This secures exchanges while promoting smooth collaboration.
3. Ensure regulatory compliance
Compliance is a key issue, particularly in regulated sectors (healthcare, finance, public sector, etc.) or in Europe with the GDPR. A CASB helps companies ensure that personal data is not stored or transferred outside authorized areas and that access rights are properly managed. It also provides auditing and reporting tools that facilitate internal controls and compliance procedures.
4. Integrating security at the heart of digital transformation
The cloud is a strategic lever for digital transformation. But this transformation cannot come at the expense of security. By integrating natively with cloud usage, CASBs enable a smooth transition without hindering innovation or imposing administrative overhead. They offer adaptive, granular, and contextual security that aligns with new ways of working (remote working, mobility, BYOD, etc.).
The strength of the Olfeo CASB solution: sovereignty and precision
Olfeo, as a leading player in web security gateways, has naturally positioned itself on this issue. Already accessing the domains and URLs requested by users, we have added an extra layer of security to detect SaaS applications.
1. In-depth detection
Olfeo does not simply display traffic to a generic domain: the solution accurately recognizes the application used, its functional category, and even the nationality of the publisher. This is key data in the context of digital sovereignty.
2. Behavioral analysis by user
Rather than providing a global, anonymized view, Olfeo allowseach use to be associated with a workstation or user profile, enabling refined management and personalized support.
3. Visibility on non-listed applications
The tool is not limited to a static catalog: thanks to its continuously updated proprietary database, it detects emerging applications, including lesser-known or recently created ones.
Far from theoretical discourse, Olfeo's CASB solution puts numbers and faces to a phenomenon that is invisible but omnipresent in businesses.
By identifying uses such as ChatGPT, YouTube, Google Docs, and Dashlane, it gives CIOs the keys to making informed decisions, balancing performance and security, and building a sovereign cloud strategy that is compliant and aligned with business expectations.
