Leak of top US officials’ group chat a lesson on unsupervised tech security

This practice of “shadow IT” became much more prominent during the pandemic, where it became almost common for teams to set up their own messaging channels without the knowledge of IT.  

Steven Wood, Director of Sales and Engineering at cybersecurity company Webroot, previously told HRD that if employees are unhappy with corporate-sanctioned applications, they tend to look elsewhere, which may lead them to circumvent IT procedures and practices. 

Wood said that education is the best line of defence against this behaviour. 

“The HR department can play a central role in ensuring end users are given the proper education and training, leveraging existing learning management systems or training processes,” he previously told HRD. “Outside of training and education, HR can work together with CIOs to create policies and enforce them.” 

Fallout from chat group leak 

The impact of the chat group blunder of the top US officials has led to lawsuits. Nonpartisan watchdog American Oversight filed a case against the involved US officials for violations of the Federal Records Act and Administrative Procedure Act.