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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Cloud, mobile and smart technology

Harlow Insurance staff increasingly store work documents on personal cloud storage accounts and access them via their own mobile phones, without IT approval. Which risk is MOST directly raised, and what is the most appropriate response?

This is shadow IT, which creates data leakage and compliance risk because unapproved personal cloud accounts bypass corporate controls. The best response is a clear cloud and mobile usage policy, approved tools that meet staff needs, and monitoring. Switching providers or buying servers does not address the uncontrolled use.

  1. AShadow IT creating data leakage and compliance risk; respond with a cloud usage policy, approved tools and monitoringCorrect
  2. BVendor lock-in; respond by switching cloud providers
  3. CLoss of elasticity; respond by buying more servers
  4. DCapacity under-utilisation; respond by cancelling the cloud contract

Explanation

Unapproved cloud services used by staff are shadow IT. They bypass security controls and risk data leakage and regulatory breaches. A policy, sanctioned alternatives and monitoring address this; the other options relate to unrelated issues.

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