Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging service (one of the most popular consumer applications) has introduced file sharing (currently only PDF). For consumers this is a moment to cheer. But given that corporate employees are increasingly using WhatsApp for communication, the addition of document sharing is another data leakage channel that every CIO needs to pay attention to.
The use of consumer applications for work has significantly increased over last few years and it has become a pervasive problem resulting in not only the huge cost endurances for the company but also serious threats of data loss, security and compliance risks. We already covered Shadow-IT risk associated with the use of consumer file sharing solutions like posing a huge file security risk of data leakage and compliance.
There’s no denying the utility of such consumer solutions for file sharing and messaging. But there has to be segregation of personal and work data. The work data has to be under the control of enterprise IT in accordance to data governance and compliance norms.
But instead of blocking the consumer apps, a better option is to give end-users an alternative of enterprise file sharing that offers a seamless, user-friendly interface that every end-user expects – and also meets the data governance and compliance requirements of coroprates like robust encryption capabilities, granular access rights control, mobile content management, enterprise digital rights management and flexible deployment options.
