You don’t want a rogue worker to undergo a breach.
All it takes is a free trial that somebody forgot to cancel. An AI-powered note-taker quietly syncing together with your Google Drive. A private Gmail account tied to a business-critical device. That’s shadow IT. And at this time, it’s not nearly unsanctioned apps, but in addition dormant accounts, unmanaged identities, over-permissioned SaaS instruments, and orphaned entry. Most of it slips previous even probably the most mature safety options.
Assume your CASB or IdP covers this? It doesn’t.
They weren’t constructed to catch what’s taking place inside SaaS: OAuth sprawl, shadow admins, GenAI entry, or apps created immediately in platforms like Google Workspace or Slack. Shadow IT is now not a visibility difficulty – it’s a full-blown assault floor.
Wing Safety helps safety groups uncover these dangers earlier than they develop into incidents.
Listed here are 5 real-world examples of shadow IT that could possibly be quietly bleeding your knowledge.
1. Dormant entry you may’t see, that attackers love to use
- The danger: Staff join instruments utilizing only a username and password, with out SSO or centralized visibility. Over time, they cease utilizing the apps, however entry stays, and worse, it’s unmanaged.
- The influence: These zombie accounts develop into invisible entry factors into your surroundings. You’ll be able to’t implement MFA, monitor utilization, or revoke entry throughout offboarding.
- Instance: CISA and international cyber businesses issued a joint advisory warning in 2024 that Russian state-sponsored group APT29 (a part of the SVR) actively targets dormant accounts to achieve entry to enterprise and authorities methods. These accounts usually function best footholds since they go unnoticed, lack MFA, and stay accessible lengthy after they’re now not in use.
2. Generative AI quietly studying your emails, recordsdata, and technique
- The danger: SaaS apps powered by Generative AI normally request broad OAuth permissions with full entry to learn inboxes, recordsdata, calendars, and chats.
- The influence: These SaaS apps usually grant extra entry than required, exfiltrate delicate knowledge to 3rd events with unclear knowledge retention and mannequin coaching insurance policies. As soon as entry is granted, there’s no strategy to monitor how your knowledge is saved, who has entry internally, or what occurs if the seller is breached or misconfigures entry.
- Instance: In 2024, DeepSeek unintentionally uncovered inner LLM coaching recordsdata containing delicate knowledge as a consequence of a misconfigured storage bucket, highlighting the chance of giving third-party GenAI instruments broad entry with out oversight round knowledge safety.
3. Former workers nonetheless maintain admin entry, months after leaving
- The danger: When workers onboard new SaaS instruments (particularly exterior your IdP), they usually are the only real admin. Even after they depart the corporate, their entry stays.
- The influence: These accounts can have persistent, privileged entry to firm instruments, recordsdata, or environments, posing a long-term insider threat.
- Actual-life instance: A contractor arrange a time-tracking app and linked it to the corporate’s HR system. Months after their contract ended, they nonetheless had admin entry to worker logs.
See what Wing uncovers in your SaaS surroundings. Speak with a safety skilled and get a demo.
4. Enterprise-critical apps tied to private accounts you don’t management
- The danger: Staff typically use their private Gmail, Apple ID, or different unmanaged accounts to join enterprise apps like Figma, Notion, and even Google Drive.
- The influence: These accounts exist totally exterior of IT visibility. In the event that they get compromised, you may’t revoke entry or implement safety insurance policies.
- Instance: Within the 2023 Okta buyer assist breach, hackers exploited a service account with out MFA that had entry to Okta’s assist system. The account was lively, unmonitored, and never tied to a particular individual. Even corporations with mature id methods can miss these blind spots.
5. Shadow SaaS with app-to-app connectivity to your crown jewels
- The danger: Staff join unsanctioned SaaS apps on to trusted platforms like Google Workspace, Salesforce, or Slack—with out IT involvement or evaluate. These app-to-app connections usually request broad API entry and keep lively lengthy after use.
- The influence: These integrations create hidden pathways into vital methods. If compromised, they will allow lateral motion, permitting attackers to pivot throughout apps, exfiltrate knowledge, or preserve persistence with out triggering conventional alerts.
- Instance: A product supervisor linked a roadmap device to Jira and Google Drive. The combination requested broad entry however was forgotten after the venture ended. When the seller was later breached, attackers used the lingering connection to tug recordsdata from Drive and pivot into Jira, accessing inner credentials and escalation paths. This kind of lateral motion was seen within the 2024 Microsoft breach by Midnight Blizzard, the place attackers leveraged a legacy OAuth app with mailbox entry to evade detection and preserve persistent entry to inner methods.
What are you doing about it?
Shadow IT isn’t only a governance drawback—it’s an actual safety hole. And the longer it goes unnoticed, the larger the chance and the extra uncovered your SaaS surroundings turns into.
Wing Safety robotically discovers SaaS apps, customers, and integrations—mapping human and non-human identities, permissions, and MFA standing—with out brokers or proxies. As soon as the unknown turns into identified, Wing delivers multi-layered SaaS safety in a single platform, unifying misconfigurations, id threats, and SaaS dangers right into a single supply of fact. By correlating occasions throughout apps and identities, Wing cuts by way of the noise, prioritizes what issues, and permits proactive, steady safety.
👉 Get a demo and take management of your SaaS surroundings – earlier than hackers do.
