Overview#
Use of unauthorized technology or services within an organization. Introduces unmanaged risk and data sprawl without proper governance.
Core objectives#
- Establish shared definitions of Shadow IT for security, engineering, and leadership teams.
- Connect Shadow IT activities to measurable risk reduction and resilience goals.
- Provide onboarding notes so new team members can quickly understand how Shadow IT works here.
Implementation notes#
- Identify the primary owner for Shadow IT, the data sources involved, and the systems affected.
- Document the minimum viable process, tooling, and runbooks that keep Shadow IT healthy.
- Map Shadow IT practices to standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls.
Operational signals#
- Leading indicators: early warnings that Shadow IT might degrade (e.g., backlog growth, noisy alerts, or missed SLAs).
- Lagging indicators: realized impact that shows Shadow IT failed or needs investment (e.g., incidents, audit findings).
- Feedback loops: retrospectives and metrics reviews that tune Shadow IT continuously.
Related practices#
- Align Shadow IT with defense-in-depth planning, threat modeling, and disaster recovery tests.
- Communicate updates to stakeholders through concise briefs, dashboards, and internal FAQs.
- Pair Shadow IT improvements with tabletop exercises to validate expectations.