The Problem with PST Files in 2020

Properly dealing with your PST files is more important than ever with the global shift to remote work. PST files are extremely vulnerable to attack, “ticking time bombs” with a huge risk capable of “exploding” at any time. Now is the time to finally migrate those pesky PST files to Office 365.

Notorious Problems with PST Files

The infamous Sony hack in 2014 exposed just how vulnerable, and expensive, PST files can be. Fast forward to 2020 during a pandemic, where remote workers are unknowingly exposing their own organizations due to increased accessibility issues with PST files containing sensitive information.

Outlook Personal Storage Table (PST) files originated in the ‘90s and early ‘00s, when they gained popularity as a space-saving solution, allowing copies of emails to be stored on local drives and personal devices rather than sitting on Exchange servers that incurred high costs for extra storage.

Ultimately, PST files are incompatible with modern-day IT operations, and if critical information is stored locally on end user workstations, there’s a huge risk of data loss, whether due to innocent system errors or targeted theft.

PSTs are portable and can be stored virtually anywhere–laptops, desktops, removable media, local networks, etc.—which makes them extremely difficult to identify and vulnerable, opening up regulatory concerns with GDPR compliance. In terms of remote work, large PST files can cause major problems as they don’t roam well, are susceptible to corruption on the network and aren’t supported in virtual desktop environments.

Other common problems with PST files include:

• eDiscovery issues: PST data is effectively “off the grid”–not searchable within the Microsoft Office 365 ecosystem–so if the information is required, locating it in a timely manner is near impossible. In all likelihood, compliance teams won’t even know it exists, let alone be able to find it. Depending on the regulation, companies could find themselves faced with sanctions, fines and expenses related to the discovery order. The fact that PSTs are portable, rarely backed up, hard to search for and easily deleted is all cause for a perfect storm if