Businesses are looking to take advantage of these tools' video conferencing, collaboration, document sharing, and team chat capabilities. However, because these tools are used to gain access to internal and sensitive/confidential data, they have security implications, particularly for organizations.

“In December 2020, McAfee published a whitepaper on the top ten security issues affecting Microsoft Teams, based on research with more than 40 million McAfee MVISION Cloud users worldwide and discussions with IT security, governance, and risk teams”.

According to McAfee's research and discussions with IT security, governance, and risk teams, the top ten security issues affecting Microsoft Teams were published in a whitepaper in December 2020.

This blog summarizes the security issues associated with other team chat apps like Microsoft Teams and how to overcome them in your workplace.

Why are team chat apps popular?

While email remains a common mode of asynchronous business communication, chat apps allow for real-time communication with multiple people. Team communication apps are constantly evolving to include unified communication features such as group chats, video and voice conferencing, and more.

The bright side of team chat apps

According to 45% of people in an online poll conducted by Report Linker, team chat apps increased productivity. You can make decisions, get approvals, and ultimately complete tasks while on the move. However, many people said that the most difficult aspect of using team chat apps was feeling obligated to respond immediately.

Team chat apps foster a virtual collaboration culture. In an age when remote working is essential, team chat apps such as Clariti provide tools for project discussions and management.

Team chat apps are also an excellent way to establish informal relationships. Employees feel more at ease communicating with coworkers via a chatting platform, which improves team understanding of one another. Although team chat apps increase productivity and collaboration, employers must be aware of the risks associated with them.

Types of risks associated with team chat apps

Though it is the quickest mode of communication, it is easy for people to overlook the legal and cybersecurity risks that come with it.

1. 1. Lack of data control

Team chat apps are used not only internally, but also with external clients. The greatest risk of initiating conversations with external clients is that the company has no control over the information passed on or recorded. As a result, if a company were involved in a legal dispute, it would have no evidence.

1. 2. Workplace behavior and compliance

Because chat apps are perceived as private, these platforms are vulnerable to abuse. These platforms can provide a venue for harassment, oversharing, and engaging in conduct that may violate company policies.

1. 3. Threats to security

Despite the security protocols in place, team communication software is still vulnerable to malware and viruses. Employees may use chat apps to share business ideas, client information, or other sensitive information that hackers can access. When company information falls into the wrong hands, it affects not only the business but also the customers.

Security threats in team chat apps can take many different forms. Hackers frequently use spam chat apps to obtain information. This type of spam involves malicious links or popups that appear in a chat and prompt users to click on them, only to download a virus that infects the device. Similarly, hackers can listen in on conversations.

1. 4. Guest users

Some team chat apps allow employees to collaborate with guests. Guest accounts allow users to invite external users with a business or consumer email account to participate as guests and have full access to team chat, meetings, and files.

This allows guests to access and share files, chat, hold online and live meetings, make calls, create tasks, and more. Guest accounts only require letters and numbers for passwords, and they do not need Two-Factor Authentication. Further, it is almost impossible to monitor whether guests have strong security measures in place, including password complexity check and password expiration. As a result, the confidential data of a business is lost.

1. 5. Untrusted devices or locations can gain access

Users with unmanaged devices are at risk of connecting to any team chat apps, downloading sensitive information (chat or files), and then compromising the data stored on their devices if they become victims of a cyberattack. Login location could be a risk indicator (e.g., compromised credentials or devices). Administrators should think about using risk-based authentication i.e., rules or policies that limit or block access from unmanaged devices and certain locations or restrict access to only certain IP ranges or blocks.

1. 6. Screen sharing

Users can share content in a team's call or meeting using screen sharing from any location or device. This feature is useful because it improves communication, productivity, and collaboration during meetings or phone calls.

However, there is a risk that other applications or communications platforms may display sensitive message alerts or data on the presenter's screen that are shared with other attendees, compromising sensitive data.

1. 7. Distributed malware

Users of team chat apps can upload files. Because guest devices are not managed by the organization, the device's status is unknown. There is a risk that unmanaged devices will contain malware, or that malicious files will be uploaded to teams' channels. Before uploading files to the chat app, administrators should consider scanning them for malicious content.

1. 8. Data loss

Internal users or guests have the potential to expose or upload sensitive or confidential data. Whitelisting approved team communication applications should be considered by administrators. Furthermore, they should consider using data loss prevention (DLP) policies to notify the teams or to prevent sensitive data from being posted in the chat apps.

1. 9. Residency of data

Data residency is becoming more important as data privacy laws and regulations focusing on the collection, processing, and transfer of personal data become more prevalent. Many laws, such as Russia's Data Protection Act No. 152 FZ, 2016, the UAE's Regulatory Framework for Stored Values and Electronic Payment Systems, and the Consumer Protection Regulations v1.3, 2017, place restrictions on where personal data can be stored.

It is important to understand the geographic region in which your team chat app resides, as well as how data privacy laws affect the geographic region, your region, and the requirements of consumers or clients.

1. 10. Control inconsistency across applications

Users, for example, may be prohibited from sharing certain data via email, but the data can be shared via team chat apps. As a result, security policies must be consistent across these applications. This includes emailing files, encrypting and password-protecting laptops, mobile devices, and USB devices, whitelisting approved cloud-based applications, and other measures.

Top 5 considerations for team chat apps in the workplace

• Policy- Create a team chat policy for your workplace.
• Contextualize - Explain the context and application of team chat platforms in your workplace.
• Responsibilities and roles - Define your expectations for employees who use chat apps to communicate. Set restrictions, such as only allowing Group admins to message.
• Train - After you have written your team chat policy, go over it with your employees. Train employees on how to use this platform and when to use it.
• Monitor - Constantly monitor and review online records of team conversations.

Conclusion

Team chat tools are becoming a part of an employee’s everyday life. However, understanding the risks and overcoming them is very important. Choosing the right team collaboration tool can reduce the risks of cyber-attacks. Why not try Clariti this time? Clariti is a free team collaboration software where you can communicate with your colleagues with high security. It has a content-rich subject chat feature where your conversation will be securely encrypted. Clariti’s subject chats transform the way work is done.

This content-rich subject chat includes emails, calls, documents, social feeds, and even to-dos. These subject chats provide an easy way of understanding the topics without the need to search for them. If you are still not sure about this team chat app, give it a try. It is Free!