The Bring Your Own Services (BYOS) Paradox

Research conducted by Varonis Systems Inc., provider of comprehensive data governance software, has found that while 80 per cent of companies do not allow their employees to use cloud based file synchronisation services, 70 per cent of companies would use these services if they were as robust as internal tools. For the research, decision makers were interviewed about the emerging shift from Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to Bring Your Own Services (BYOS).

The results indicate that while the vast majority of organizations would like to harness the power and ease that file synchronisation technology could give them, only 20 per cent currently allow these services due to fears of data leakage, security breaches and compliance issues. To protect themselves against these threats, 59 per cent of organisations use a combination of policy backed up with blocking techniques to stem the tide of enterprise files spilling onto external servers and devices. A further 20 per cent rely on policy alone to stop the mass leakage of proprietary and regulated data.

In stark contrast, a significant fifth of companies have no measures in place at all to prevent their staff from accessing file synchronisation tools, leaving their employees free to take confidential data outside the company with them. Of this fifth, an astonishing 70 per cent were seemingly not concerned about having no controls in place to defend themselves against critical information leakage or loss.

With BYOS threatening to sweep past all company defences and carry away the company data, the reaction seems two-fold: while the majority of companies block file synch services completely, the rest leave their employees free reign. David Gibson, VP of Strategy at Varonis said: "As workers are increasingly required to divide their time between working on the move, at home and in the office, companies and employees alike yearn for the ease of use and convenience of file synch services. Even organisations that block these services may have employees using them when they're not connected to the corporate network, breaching the defenses of a corporation and introducing a host of new vulnerabilities. The Challenge is to provide companies with a service that has the robust controls of its internal system while empowering staff to do their work wherever, whenever and from whichever device they need."

To download the full Cloud Synchronization Services Research report, visit http://hub.varonis.com/BYOSSurvey