Workplace blame culture is one of the significant factors affecting the success of cloud adoption, according to a new study by enterprise backup and data recovery solutions provider Veritas Technologies.
Businesses are losing critical data – such as customer orders and financial data – because office workers are too scared or embarrassed to report data loss or ransomware issues when using cloud applications, such as Microsoft Office 365.
The study found that 29% of Singapore employees lied to cover up the fact they had accidentally deleted data they stored in shared cloud drives. While 44% said no one noticed their error, in the cases where the accidents were discovered, 17% of respondents reported the data was no longer recoverable.
Reasons for not owning up to their errors include being ashamed (26%) and frightened of the consequences (16%).
Employees are even less forthcoming with ransomware incidents. Only 31% of the Singapore respondents would immediately confess mistakes that introduced ransomware into their organisations.
“In today’s hybrid work environment, employees are increasingly reliant on cloud-based technologies to help them get their tasks done. With more people accessing cloud drives, the more opportunities there are for individuals to avoid suspicion or pass the blame. However, without knowing the full details of who caused a ransomware attack, plus how and when, it is much harder to limit its impact,” says Andy Ng, vice president and managing director for Asia South and Pacific Region at Veritas Technologies.
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He adds: “Leaders need to motivate employees to come forward as soon as possible so that IT teams can respond quickly to take remedial action, given that there’s often a short window to minimise the impact of deleting or corrupting the cloud-based data. It is clear from this research that shaming and punishment are not ideal ways to do that.”
Misconceptions about cloud
The research also revealed that losing work-related data or introducing ransomware are two of the most stressful experiences for office workers — more stressful than a first date, a job interview or sitting for an exam.
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To worsen things, employees do not have a clear understanding of how much help the cloud companies hosting their files would be in the event that their data is lost.
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Nearly all of the Singapore respondents (92%) thought their cloud provider would be able to restore their files for them, either from a cloud copy, their ‘deleted items’ folder or a backup. Some (9%) even thought their ‘deleted items’ would be available to them in the cloud for at least a year after the data is lost.
Moreover, 44% of office workers here think data in the cloud is safer from ransomware because they assume their cloud providers are protecting it from malware they might accidentally introduce.
“These misconceptions will continue to put businesses at risk until they are thoroughly debunked. The truth is that, as part of their standard service, most cloud providers only provide guarantee of resiliency of their service – they do not provide guarantees that a customer using their service will have their data protected. Storing data in the cloud does not automatically make it safe, it still requires strong data protection,” explains Ng.
He continues: “It is every business's responsibility to protect their own data, whether in the cloud or stored on their own devices. If they can get that right and make it easy for workers to restore lost files, they can take the pressure off their employees. Blaming people does not help – deploying a comprehensive backup and protection strategy in the cloud, however, does.”
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