With explosive adoption over the past 12 months, Microsoft Teams has been instrumental in keeping the world working, and ensuring continuity as we return to a blended future of hybrid work and working from anywhere.
But when people are working remotely there are new considerations for data protection and compliance that need to be addressed, in order to make sure every organisation is working securely, and protecting their data assets properly — from both malicious activity, but also from simple user errors and misjudgements. Because Teams is so ubiquitous and reassuring, hooking in to all the familiar Microsoft 365 applications, that it’s easy to make mistakes if you don’t set up the security features properly.
As Eamon McGann, Client Solutions Director at Core, explained, “the frictionless simplicity of Microsoft Teams is a great strength, but now we have so many new users working outside of the structure and controls of the office, the risks for data egress are huge.”
Enabling compliance
McGann his colleagues from Core will be demonstrating how easy and important it is to enable the compliance and data loss prevention features already embedded in MS Teams, at a webinar on Wednesday 17th March, How to protect your data and stay secure when working in Microsoft Teams.
As well as demonstrating the practical configuration of the tools, the team will help delegates understand the risks at a strategic level, and the need to create a unified approach to data discovery, classification, protection and governance. When these elements are thoroughly understood, they can be implemented across all devices and assets regardless of where people are located, Then they can be reinforced and supported by policies which not only constrain user behaviour, but also help to inform and educate, raising awareness when a policy is at risk of violation.
This protects the organisation, its employees, and the data subjects involved — while freeing people up to do their work effectively wherever they are. As McGann described, following a recent client set-up, “end users often feel real pressure when they know there’s sensitive data involved, and they’re personally responsible. So there’s a real sense of security when they know their organisation has the right policy controls enabled and will catch any missteps. That the system is going to help them do their job.”
Creating a culture of data loss awareness
Addressing insider risk management is clearly a win for all parties, and Microsoft’s own research indicates that more than 60% of customers felt that data loss was the biggest risk during overnight distributed working through the pandemic lockdowns, and that data protection and governance was the biggest priority for the year ahead. They know that user error is the greatest risk, especially when people are working away from the traditional office. But some organisations, even larger ones that Core speaks to, have not enabled the compliance tooling within Teams because it’s unfamiliar, and they’re not sure how to get it implemented.
“People are concerned that if they switch it on, it will be distracting or annoying to the user,” McGann explained.
“But the reality is that it runs smoothly in the background. And we can help them pilot it unobtrusively, and make informed decisions about how best to roll it out”
Understanding the possibilities is essential not just for IT and security people, but for HR, compliance and legal teams too. You can enrol for the webinar on March 17th to learn more.
