Skip to content

Shadow IT

Software and services staff adopt on their own, without IT approval or oversight.

It is usually a symptom rather than defiance. When the sanctioned tools are slow or missing a capability, people find something that works, and company data ends up in an account IT cannot see, secure, back up, or recover.

Discovery comes before enforcement. Seeing what is actually in use tells you which gaps drove people elsewhere, and often the right answer is adopting and securing the tool rather than banning it.

Where this comes up

Shadow IT sits inside our cybersecurity and threats work. If you are trying to work out what this means for your own environment rather than in the abstract, that is the page worth reading next, and a short call will get you a straight answer faster than either.

Cybersecurity services Ask an engineer

Related terms

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps A cloud access security broker that discovers which SaaS applications are in use and controls how company data moves through them. Attack surface Everything about your organization that an attacker could potentially reach and attempt to exploit. Data exfiltration Copying data out of your environment to somewhere the attacker controls. Software as a service Subscribing to software the vendor runs entirely, accessed through a browser or app.

More in cybersecurity and threats

Application allowlistingBeaconingBrute force attackBusiness email compromiseCommand and controlContainmentCredential stuffingDefense in depth

Back to the full glossary →

Want this explained against your own setup?

Definitions only get you so far. Book a short call and we will tell you whether this actually matters for your business, and what we would do about it.

Call (855) 737-9500 / (480) 573-3349

Email [email protected]

15-minute response on critical issues, 24/7. Onboarding in two to three weeks.

We reply within one business day. No spam, no pressure.