Cloud storage has revolutionised working practices, not least over the last two years, when remote working meant employees needed easy access to data, no matter their location. As a result, organisations have become increasingly reliant on public cloud services to share and store vital documents.
As research from Veritas highlights, almost half of office workers in the UAE store data in cloud folders assigned to them, about 26 percent in folders that sync to the cloud, and 21 percent in cloud folders that they share with colleagues.
However, the same research found some worrying trends in employees’ engagement with the cloud. For example, 72 percent of office workers in the UAE have accidentally deleted shared data (such as Word documents, presentations, or spreadsheets), with as many as a fifth doing so multiple times per week.
While some documents that were deleted are subsequently retrieved, 59 percent of respondents said they’d accidentally deleted a file in the cloud and were not able to get it back.
Compounding this issue is the shame associated with data-deletion mistakes. Over a third of employees in the UAE were not forthcoming to their IT departments after accidentally deleting shared data from cloud applications such as Office 365 or Google Docs. The reasons cited for staying quiet being frightened of the consequences, and previous negative experiences with their IT departments.
Such shame is a significant hurdle in data retrieval, exacerbating the impact of data loss. There’s often a short window where businesses can act to minimise the impact of deleting or corrupting cloud-based data used by employees. When dealing with accidental cloud data deletion, organisations must create a culture of openness, with less judgement around human error so that employees will be more forthcoming and less afraid of perceived consequences.
Dispelling assumptions
Cloud storage (and the associated issues of accidental deletion) is increasingly becoming part and parcel of employees’ working lives. However, there is a concerning lack of understanding over the roles and responsibilities of cloud provider versus cloud user, especially when retrieving deleted data. Veritas’s research found that nearly all employees (96 percent) thought in the event of deleted data, their cloud provider would be able to restore their files, either from a cloud copy, their ‘deleted items’ folder, or a backup. Most cloud providers offer limited protection and guarantees for data retrieval if customers are the cause of their own data loss.
This highlights that many data protection policies are unclear, hidden, or misunderstood. Most cloud storage providers contract a ‘shared responsibility’ model with customers. Under this arrangement, it is the client’s responsibility to implement backup and disaster recovery policies and processes.
It’s not just the issue of ‘lost’ data that employees mistakenly lay at the door of providers. Potentially even more harmful is the assumption that cloud providers protect cloud data from ransomware attacks. More than half of office workers think data in the cloud is safer from ransomware. This is fundamentally incorrect and will continue to put businesses at risk. Most cloud providers make it clear that the customer’s data is their own responsibility.
So, what’s the solution? Businesses need to find ways to make it easy for employees to come forward when they delete data or accidentally open the door to ransomware. The first step is to replicate the protection that employees expect. Being able to restore lost or damaged data that was stored in the cloud can be as simple as adding it to an organisation’s existing backup solution.
Extending existing protection to the cloud means that employees can confidently report their issues, safe in the knowledge that their accidents can be corrected. In many cases, employees can even be empowered to fix their own accidental deletion issues, removing the need to confess altogether.
If organisations want to make the most of the opportunities cloud offers, the key lies with employees. Give them the confidence and information they need to use the cloud safely and securely. When mistakes inevitably occur, use these instances as learning opportunities – not a reason to apportion blame.
