WALTHAM, MA--(Marketwired - Feb 17, 2015) - Today's IT department gets creative when it comes to getting the job done according to an independent survey commissioned by CloudLock, the leading cloud information security provider. The recent survey sought to understand the perception of IT security policies related to the cloud and other technologies, and whether policies help or hinder day-to-day productivity, collaboration and innovation. The results revealed that IT departments are significantly more likely to take action, be that unsanctioned workarounds, or transferring work documents to personal devices, to complete their work. 

Key survey findings include:

IT Does Whatever It Takes to Get the Job Done Regardless of Potential Consequences

• When asked if they have ever downloaded an application they were not authorized to use on a corporate device in order to do their job, 33 percent of IT professionals and administrators said yes compared to only 15 percent of the total respondents.
• 67 percent of IT professionals and administrators have downloaded an application that they use for work on a personal device such as a phone, laptop, or tablet.
• When asked if they have ever knowingly ignored a security policy/best practice in order to do their job, nearly one-third of respondents in IT said yes (29 percent), compared to only 16 percent of people in other professions.

Based on these findings, it's evident that employees want to deliver high quality work in an efficient manner. When companies deny access to certain applications that increase efficiency and productivity, the work suffers and employees inevitably find ways around it. More than 55 percent of all employees use their company credentials to login to at least one application. Additionally, most organizations do not allow their end users to share company material with their personal accounts. An analysis of CloudLock's own data shows that more than 40 percent of all external sharing happens with personal email accounts, a major issue as companies try to control or restrict access.

The Line is Blurred Between Personal and Professional Devices

• Only 30 percent of respondents are given company-issued phones for work.
• Nearly one-third of people have downloaded an application on their personal devices that they then needed to log into with their work/network credentials. This number jumps to more than half (53 percent) if you work in technology.

The need to be accessible remotely is consistently growing and employees are using their company credentials to login to mobile apps at increasingly higher rates. A year ago, 10 percent of all unique apps CloudLock detected were mobile; this number has grown up to approximately 25 percent.

Your Employees Are in the Clouds, Why Aren't You?

• When asked if they leverage the cloud for personal use on corporate devices, 43 percent of people said yes, including:
  • 50 percent of Millennials
  • 60 percent of IT professionals

"It is clear that employees, in particular the IT department, only want to do the very best for their companies and will seek out ways to be more efficient and produce quality work. As a business owner, why would you want to get in their way," said Gil Zimmerman, CEO and co-founder of CloudLock. "Companies need to allow employees to work how they want to work and arm them with the tools needed to drive company innovation, collaboration and ultimately growth while providing broad guardrails to ensure critical company assets are protected."

An infographic illustrating the findings can be found here.

Methodology
CloudLock commissioned independent research firm ResearchNow to study IT security policy perception of 1,000 consumers in Q4 2014. Additional data referenced includes Apps Stats collected and analyzed by CloudLock from 225 domains, with more than 500,000 users.

About CloudLock
CloudLock offers the cloud security fabric enabling enterprises to protect their data in the cloud, reduce risk, achieve compliance, manage threats and increase productivity. By analyzing 15 billion+ objects for more than 5 million end users daily, CloudLock delivers the only complete, risk-appropriate and people-centric approach to cloud security. Learn more at www.cloudlock.com.