Microsoft Teams is Being Used to Share Sensitive Business Data

If you use Microsoft Teams or even Slack for sharing business information and data, you should be aware as these apps might have security flaws that will eventually put you at a greater risk.

According to a German IT research and analyst firm, Hornetsecurity, almost half of the Teams users (at 45%) leverage the app to share business-related data without giving it a second thought. Sharing data via Teams and other like-minded apps increased parallel to emails, raising a few red flags.

Security Firm Raises Red Flags Over Users Sharing Confidential Data

According to the study that involved 540 respondents, 90% of the users resort to chatting via Teams User Chat for business communication, with only 10% using Teams Channel Conversations.

Here, it found out that a major portion (at 45%) of the users admittedly have shared confidential data with other users via the chat feature. Here, 51% of the respondents mentioned that they had shared business-related data over the platform.

Another 48% of the respondents said they had accidentally sent something they shouldn’t have via the Teams platform.

Apart from that, the study found out that users primarily used their personal devices (at 51%) while only 29% reported using work-based equipment for data sharing.

Lack of employee training has been highlighted as a primary reason behind such practices, which means companies should provide appropriate training to their employees on how to share business data while minimizing the risks associated with it.

Trusting platforms like Teams and Slack do have ill effects given the fact that the data can be subjected to leaks, given that their development teams seldom analyze the code giving attackers access to infiltrate.

Daniel Hoffman, CEO of Hornetsecurity, states that companies should place adequate measures to safeguard business-related data from being shared without a secured backup.

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