Telecommuting has become common practice for the majority of companies these days. With more than 115 million daily users, we can see how companies have made remote collaboration possible through online meetings, platform conversations and real-time document sharing. As we expect teleworking to stay the norm in 2021, here are some tips for using Microsoft Teams safely:

1. Train Your Employees

It is essential to provide training to your employees using Microsoft Teams. By giving your employees a good basic understanding of the platform, you reduce the risk of misuse and therefore of data leakage. It is therefore essential to carry out basic training for the Microsoft Teams platform. If you are looking for Microsoft Teams training, MS Solutions offers it – contact us to find out more!

2. Manage Groups and Memberships Properly

Microsoft Teams is a Microsoft 365 application that works a bit like the other Microsoft solutions, in that it is the administrator or the owner of the group who manages memberships. It is important for this person to configure personalized access according to users, groups and conversations, to prevent information from being distributed to the wrong people. It’s also necessary to pay attention to the settings you have put in place regarding the permissions of people outside your company.

3. Configure Access to Applications

Applications are divided into several groups: applications integrated and provided by Microsoft 365, applications developed by a third party, and custom internal applications. If you are an administrator, you can easily restrict access to these applications in order to strengthen the security of your company. You will find these settings in the “manage applications” tab of Microsoft Teams.

4. Set Up a Global Configuration of Microsoft Teams

You can create a Microsoft 365 group by adding people, who can then create a team and become its owners. In fact, you may not know it, but anyone with an Exchange Online mailbox can create a team and become its owner. This is why it is important to restrict this access, by designating a small group of specific people with the right to create and manage teams.

By configuring the Microsoft Teams global settings, you will be able to select:

• If users can communicate with people outside the organization
• If file sharing and cloud storage capabilities are enabled
• Authentication requirements for accessing meeting content (password, double authentication, etc.)

5. Create Secure Access for Guest Members

In the admin centre, you will be able to configure guest access settings. Thus, guests (external members) will have personalized access to shared content. For example, you can disable certain features, such as screen sharing, for your guests.

6. Follow the Activity of Your Users

If you want to keep tabs on how your employees are using Microsoft Teams, you can. To do this you will have to go to the Microsoft Teams admin centre, to “analytics and reports”, then “usage”, and finally to the Microsoft 365 usage analysis in Power BI. This provides a good overview of activity in Microsoft Teams.

In Short…

It is essential to manage your security on the Microsoft Teams platform in order to avoid any risk of sensitive data leaks. There are many ways to do this. If you want more detail on Microsoft Teams, or would like to take training in this discipline, contact one of our experts.