Many Microsoft Teams users seem to trust the service too much, according to new research..
Cybersecurity firm Hornetsecurity is urging companies to take more precautions against potential threats with Microsoft Teams video conferencing platform.
According to her study, almost half (45%) of users admit to sending “confidential and sensitive” information frequently via Microsoft Teams.
Protect your Teams data
Even worse, a higher number (51%) was found sharing “business-critical” information, while a similar number (48%) of respondents accidentally sent a Microsoft Teams message that shouldn’t be sent, such as to the wrong person.
When it comes to hardware, offenders are more likely to share confidential information using a personal device (51%), compared to a business-issued piece of equipment (29%). It is clear that the importance of using secure devices professionally needs to be emphasized in employee training.
Hornetsecurity suggests this as one solution to ease pressures on a company’s cybersecurity, citing 56% of survey respondents who believe employee training and awareness is the most important aspect of risk reduction.
The company’s CEO, Daniel Hoffman, explains that “companies must have adequate safeguards in place to protect and secure business data” as more workers turn to chat-like messaging services.
If users are to continue to share content through chat, Hoffman says companies must “ensure that information and files shared across the platform are backed up in a secure and responsible manner.”
This news comes just two weeks after researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison proved that third-party apps Teams (and Slack) may have some worrying security flaws. Since their code is rarely analyzed by development teams in Teams and Slack, the potential for data leaks can be greater than expected.
