How Should K–12 IT Teams Approach Shadow IT?
By focusing on security risks, IT can bring everyone to the table with a shared perspective: Everyone wants to keep student data safe and private, and everyone wants to ensure that the school runs smoothly. This means that K–12 IT managers should prioritize areas of concern by focusing on shadow IT that may lead to a data breach or that could create risks in compliance or during an audit. Picking your battles to make the most impact is the best approach.
DIVE DEEPER: How K–12 IT leaders can reduce student data exposure.
What Are the Best Ways to Detect Undeclared Shadow IT?
The biggest security threats are going to come from devices sitting on your network that don’t belong there. Prioritize looking at firewall and intrusion prevention system (IPS) alerts and network scanning tools to discover what’s sitting on the network that doesn’t fit a normal user or approved server profile.
More important, dive deep on devices.
Don’t just take someone’s word for it: “Oh, that’s our security camera video system” or “Here’s a page on the vendor’s website of all the ports it needs open.”
When you identify something that isn’t fully understood and completely profiled, take the time to understand what is happening.
How Do I Deal with Shadow IT Devices That I Find on Our Networks?
Remember that simply declaring something “known” doesn’t mitigate the threat it may pose. It may not be “shadow” IT, but it doesn’t change overnight to a fully supported and secured system. Use network isolation tools, including firewalls and additional virtual local area networks to wall off devices, then study traffic and IPS logs to determine what access is needed and when.
You’ll be thrust into a world of imprecision and inaccuracy when dealing with vendors and end users, so be prepared to be patient.
RELATED: When administration supports IT efforts, staff follows.
Why Do I Have So Much Shadow IT?
No one goes into a shadow IT project thinking that they want to undermine security, so assume that people have good intentions but need better training and support. In other words, shadow IT often happens because IT isn’t meeting people’s needs in some way. As you find shadow IT, try to understand the root cause for the policy breach and communicate that upward to district management — even if it is “IT’s fault” sometimes.
