How to minimize data leaks using TeamsHUB by Cyclotron

Introduction

Data is paramount for the growth and development of any business. Hence, confidentiality and security of corporate data is a key priority for IT leaders, especially when teams work remotely.

Is Microsoft Teams secured?

Microsoft Teams has experienced rapid popularity and exponential adoption by leading corporate players in recent years. This has led hackers to focus on exploiting security gaps in Microsoft Teams for potential personal and corporate data. Remember, that Teams is natively secured but governance and policies to enable the features for any an organization can prevent vulnerability and risks of attack.

Corporate communication and collaboration often involves sharing data with third-party vendors using Microsoft Teams which may be exploited by hackers and digital pirates for ransom.

It has been observed that organizations fail to protect their data because of mismanaged protocols and policies rather than technological shortcomings. Further in this blog, we will see how –

Top security threats in MS Teams

Now, let us uncover some critical shortcomings of Teams –

• Guest users might be easily added to a channel or team without any acknowledgment and hence, members of other channels can mistakenly share and expose confidential information to them.

• Guest users can also upload an infected file containing malware to a channel or team.

• An organization has no security control over their partners. Hence, through compromised partner’s account, hackers can gain access to end-user accounts of the organization.

• The organization cannot know what has been shared on the partners channels due to invisibility and hence, the data can’t be audited.

• Files, links, images, etc. are not scanned in the chat at all.

• Hackers can also access the chat sessions of a target user and obtain sensitive information.

How TeamsHUB by Cyclotron makes MS Teams secure

Now, we will learn how using TeamsHUB by Cyclotron, you can mitigate data challenges that come with collaboration in Teams and maintain an inviolable security posture. Let’s begin:

Important rules to reduce the risk of data leakage

Security rule #1: Identify and protect sensitive data in Teams

Determine which data in your organization needs the most protection. Confidential data is detected and blocked from viewing, downloading, printing, etc., whenever shared by Teams users with the help of Information Rights Management (IRM) Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies.

How TeamsHUB by Cyclotron helps: TeamsHUB by Cyclotron automates access management to ensure right information is accessed and used by right people. It allows you to manage identity and permissions effectively to avert abnormal user activities.

Additionally, use TeamsHUB by Cyclotron for proper classification and categorization of information to identify sensitive teams and manage them individually with easy customizations using an easy-to-use interface. Also, protect the information and attachments in email, Teams chat, channel messages, OneDrive, and SharePoint documents persistently.

Security rule #2: Monitor activities and critical changes in Teams

A hacker reconnoiters the network security before tampering with the system, hence it is vital for businesses to keep track of critical changes that take place in their environment.

Using effective monitoring solutions, you can accurately identify unusual incidents such as unauthorized access, copying, download, or deletion of data, and more.

How TeamsHUB by Cyclotron helps: TeamsHUB by Cyclotron’s analytics gives you full visibility to monitor all happenings inside your Teams environment including external access, exchange of files among different users, Teams usage and adoption, and other user activities to grab granular insights in real-time.

Security rule #3: Implement strategy to protect valuable data while enabling external access  

Securing Teams data while external collaboration in Teams needs additional governance settings. This is so because by default, you can selectively block guest access to specific security groups. If guest access is disabled at tenant level, no team in entire Teams environment can invite guest users. Similarly, if guest access is enabled at tenant level, every team will inherit guest access capability.

How TeamsHUB by Cyclotron helps: To work around this, TeamsHUB by Cyclotron allows you to configure security settings both at team and tenant level before you collaborate with guests. You have options to limit what you want guest users to see or access and what not. Additionally, it ensures that no unauthorized external domains are allowed in your Teams environment. Also, using TeamsHUB by Cyclotron, you can even revoke access permissions to any shared file or document for guest users anytime.

Security rule #4: Encrypt Teams data

Ensure an easy mechanism to regulate sensitive data in Teams that follows encryption. Encryption is one of the best ways to secure sensitive information and make the system defensive against theft. Encryption is a mechanism that converts sensitive data into unreadable complex codes and makes it difficult to crack.

How TeamsHUB by Cyclotron helps: TeamsHUB by Cyclotron encrypts data using sensitivity labels and keeps it tightly governed while it travels.

Using sensitivity labels, you can define various levels of protection, add content marking such as ‘do not copy’ or ‘do not share’, configure a time-limit for the availability of the content, and enable auto-labeling to detect sensitive data such as PII or financial account numbers and prevent its sharing.

Additionally, you can restrain editing in shared documents, block printing or downloading of files by specific departments, disable the opening of documents by external users, protect the content in third-party cloud apps, and do much more.

Security rule #5: Consider endpoint security

Unmanaged or BYOD devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, etc., project diverse endpoints. As such, securing Teams data that travels across such devices and the internet is challenging.

Organizations must ensure they install firewalls, threat protection and prevention systems, and web security gateways as basic security solutions.

How TeamsHUB by Cyclotron helps: Being BYOD and WFH compatible, TeamsHUB by Cyclotron allows you to monitor different types of devices connected to your corporate network with advanced security controls.

Besides, configuring device management policies, you can effectively analyze device behavior.

Security rule #6: Build an automated governance tool for admins

It would be relaxing for administrators if they are provided with single-pane visibility to manage number of configurations and settings in Teams with just a few clicks.

How TeamsHUB by Cyclotron helps: To enhance security and amplify user experience, TeamsHUB by Cyclotron automates MS Teams and streamlines all governance features which eliminates manual and error-prone tasks. Furthermore, you can apply right security settings automatically at team level too, based on its sensitivity. Administrators who constantly juggle between security and productivity in Teams, can now transition to an intuitive interface that brings all Teams apps and operations together for better monitoring.

To know more about TeamsHUB by Cyclotron, please visit https://TeamsHUB.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com to request a demo