Shadow IT includes any unsanctioned apps or hardware used by employees that fall outside of those managed by the IT department (sanctioned apps). A centralized department manages these IT systems, and understanding and fulfilling each department’s requirements can prove challenging.

For example, shadow IT applications such as file sharing and messaging apps can enable faster employee collaboration.

Consider this example of shadow IT use resulting in non-compliance: An employee uses an unsanctioned filesharing app to share spreadsheets containing customers’ https://www.upguard.com/blog/personally-identifiable-data-pii to a coworker.

For example: A particular department opts for an unsanctioned data storage app, while the rest of the organization uses a sanctioned data storage app.

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