A lot of employees use consumer file-sharing services like Dropbox for storing and exchanging sensitive work-related information, even if they realize that their employer has a specific policy which prohibits the use of such services.
Companies normally rely on corporate IT teams to manage secure protection and controlled access to sensitive information. When their employees turn to using consumer-grade file-sharing services for work files, they can even override the systems in place as well as usurp the responsibility of IT.

The experts point out that as the flood of consumer mobile devices at workplace increases, the risk of data loss is also rising. The reports surveyed around 1,300 corporate IT users in order to investigate the use of consumer file-sharing portals and their impact on the rise of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device at work). The results of the study are the following:
1. 20% of employees use consumer file-sharing portals for work data.
2. The worst culprits are corporate leaders. It turned out that VPs and directors are most likely to use file-sharing services despite the risks.
3. If IT has a policy against using file-sharing at workplace, 50% of employees still turn to these services even being fully aware of such a policy.
4. In 2 months, the number of personal devices at work will increase by 25%.
5. Almost 60% of employees having a personal smartphone or tablet admitted they access work files from their device.

The report explains that consumer file-sharing portals and mobile devices have introduced corporate employees to a new world of powerful capabilities. Industry observers point at the survey results revealing that since the company has been very slow to roll out services with a comparable value, the employees keep using the same services at work to the ones they use to share content with friends. This means that enterprise IT is in result keeping rapidly losing control of corporate information. If you take into account the figures in the survey, you will realize that it’s a risky proposition which IT needs to be in front of, not behind.