What is Microsoft teams?
Microsoft Teams is an online collaboration platform with persistent chat and document sharing, as well as online meetings and other necessary features for communication. Teams, a component of the Office 365 suite, supports remote communication across most desktop and mobile devices and is available on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.
It is essential to have a conducive team space in order to make creative decisions and communicate with each other effectively. Teams, A shared workspace software makes this much easier, especially in companies with many remote employees, or when they have large members in their organization.
Microsoft Teams features:
Teams and channels: Users can start group collaboration and chats in team channels by creating new teams or joining pre-existing teams using this tab. Office 365 Groups are established on the backend when a user creates a team.
Chats and conversations: Users can attach files to messaging threads and send each other private messages using this feature. For file sharing in conversations, OneDrive for Business acts as the basic fundamental technology. The General channel can be viewed and added to by all members and can be used to invite other teammates to different conversations.
Calendar: Users may arrange meetings and organise projects with this service because it syncs with their Outlook calendars.
Storage of documents in Sharepoint: Every Microsoft Teams will have a site in SharePoint Online that comes pre-configured with a document library folder. Across all chats, all shared files will be automatically saved to this location. For critical information, permissions and security options can also be modified.
Online calls and meetings: Users can start and receive peer-to-peer voice and video interactions using this tab. A good video call feature is greatly appreciated on a collaboration platform and Microsoft Teams provides users with the seamless experience they need. One can also enjoy simple and fast desktop sharing for technical assistance and multi-user real-time collaboration.
Guest access: Owners of teams can invite individuals from outside the company to take part in team activities using the guest access option. All team channels, discussions, shared files, and meetings are open to visitors. There are no limits or screening processes in place to determine who is eligible to acquire guest access privileges other from the need that visitors have a personal or corporate email account.
Data lifecycle management: In contrast to secure data governance, which has tight guidelines for the gathering, usage, retention, and removal of sensitive information, the Teams philosophy of open communication and file sharing is in conflict with these procedures. Additionally, security and compliance regulations like HIPAA and PCI DSS require data governance practises like enterprise-wide labelling, content oversight, and tracking, as well as the proper management of information that has expired or changed classification. This kind of control is difficult to apply on Teams' distributed network of chat messages and data files.
Integration of Microsoft Teams with other Microsoft's apps
The key element of Microsoft teams is that they can integrate with other applications across the Microsoft framework.
For example:
In Exchange Online, team communications are kept in a special group mailbox.
SharePoint provides the platform for file sharing.
Team data and membership are stored and managed via Azure Active Directory. Additionally, it oversees user authentication for the whole Teams platform.
Make sure you review and configure these items before making Teams generally available within your organization:
Ensure authentication is set up in Azure AD for users to log into Teams
Global security settings in Office 365 — a lot of settings are carried over to Teams or to SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange, which function in conjunction with Teams
Microsoft Teams security
Security standards of Microsoft Teams
Teams complies with various security standards, including ISO 27001, ISO 27018, and HIPAA Business. It also enforces organisation and team-wide two-factor authentication methods and single sign-on via Active Directory.
To prevent unwanted reading, Active Directory also enables Teams to encrypt all data in transit and at rest. Additionally, Notes in OneNote are protected by OneNote encryption, whereas files shared within a Teams instance are kept in SharePoint and protected by SharePoint encryption. SharePoint security also supports the content of Wiki tabs.
Files are kept in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint, meetings are kept in Stream, voicemails are kept in the user's mailbox and Exchange Online via eDiscovery, and chat messages are kept in a secret file in the user's mailbox.
All information you submit through Teams, including files and instant messages, is kept and backed up in Azure. Microsoft stores Teams data according to each organization's region because Azure is provided through data centres in 54 different global regions. This indicates that all information is stored in accordance with the data security laws of the region in which each entity conducts business.
Teams therefore comes with a variety of security measures that administrators may customize using Active Directory to meet the needs of their business. However, much like any other collaborative tool, it is not entirely hack-proof.
Microsoft Teams data breach
A security researcher named CyberArk recently found that a subdomain takeover vulnerability in Teams could be exploited by potential attackers using a malicious GIF. Using access tokens, the attackers exploited the way Teams allows users to view images, and it spread in a similar fashion to a worm virus. Attackers could swiftly and easily take over many accounts because the GIF could be distributed to numerous Teams. As a result, they could obtain private information like login credentials, meeting details, and competitor information and use it to harm the organization's finances and reputation.
After this incident, Microsoft patched up before any bad actors could exploit Teams but although it is safe now, it is still vulnerable. This demonstrates the necessity of having stringent security procedures in place within a business before implementing Teams.
5 steps to secure Microsoft Teams
Limit guest access and block external access: With Microsoft enabling guest access as a default setting in all new tenants, Team owners can now add extenal users to any Team channels. To make it secure, you should establish a documented formal request procedure where users can give business justifications for adding external guest members to Teams channels. Once guest access is enabled, you can manage the settings for that user's channel access privileges. That being said, you also should not alow your users to communicate with Skype or Teams users outside your organization. This represents potential security threat because those external users may turn out to be attackers who pretend to be someone your user knows and might send malicious links or attachments, resulting in an account breach or leaked information.
Create a framework for information protection: In order to meet regulatory and legal standards as well as to prevent data loss, it is necessary to set up an information protection architecture. Depending on the Office 365 tenant used by your company, the location of your Teams data within the Azure cloud architecture may vary. Make sure the location of your Teams data is suitable for your company needs because different regions may adhere to different data security regulations.
Enabling Multi-factor authentication(MFA): Setting up MFA in Microsoft Teams offers an extra degree of protection because it requires users to sign in using either their biometrics, like face ID or fingerprints, an authenticator app, or a security PIN. Even if an attacker is able to crack or steal the account holder's password, MFA ensures that the account cannot be accessed. Administrators can use Active Directory to establish two-factor authentication, but if a hacker is able to access the account, that configuration will be disabled. Therefore, it is advised to convert to multi-factor authentication so that any firm utilising Microsoft Teams can be secured and protected from compromise.
Timely audit of user activity: Monitoring reveals how people use and engage with Teams. Use the insights to determine which user behaviours should be modified to improve Teams security. Furthermore, Teams provides limited monitoring capabilities to avoid blanket permissions for third-party apps that access corporate and user data. Administrators can create an exclusive list of third-party apps and if a team requests an app that isn't listed, admins can review each permission policy manually and decide whether to grant or deny access. Even though the process might seem lengthy, it's better than being compromised.
Establish end-point protection: Ensure all the devices linked to your corporate network are protected by endpoint security solutions that help secure the organization from malware, spam, and phishing attacks. In the event that an attacker does manage to access a trusted user's account, they frequently leverage both artificial and human threat intelligence to quickly detect and remediate advanced threats across endpoints, including threats within your Microsoft 365 environment. This will prevent users from receiving and opening any malicious URLs or attachments in Teams.
Summary
Microsoft Teams is one of the most secure communication tools available today but as we've seen above, attackers, however, are constantly looking for new, clever ways to get into even the most well-defended systems.
These 5 tips can be used as a starter to protect Microsoft Teams from malicious activities as Teams may hold alot of valuable data that exposes how vulnerable your organization can be.
Keeping in mind these security tips and constantly updating the organization's security perimeter will help prevent huge losses and ensure that all the data is protected.