Security concerns drive Microsoft to ban internal use of Slack, AWS

Microsoft believes various versions of Slack do not offer sufficient controls to protect its intellectual property

Microsoft has reportedly barred its more than 100,000 employees from using the free version of Slack. Apparently, Microsoft has come up with a list of prohibited services and apps that are discouraged from using inside the company, including Google Docs and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company seems to be concerned regarding the security aspects of Slack Plus and Slack Free.

A Microsoft official was reportedly quoted saying that Slack Free, Slack Standard as well as Slack Plus versions did not provide appropriate controls to properly protect Microsoft Intellectual Property (IP). Apparently, Slack Enterprise Grid version did comply with the company’s security requirements, however, the use of Microsoft Teams was encouraged rather than a competitive software.

Evidently, this allows the employees to use Slack Enterprise Grid, although the higher costs involved would likely influence most people to use the preferred Microsoft Teams option. Sources with knowledge on the matter stated that the usage of Google Docs and AWS might require a business justification for employee use, and even GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft, is discouraged for highly confidential data, specs or code.

According to reports, Microsoft has also prohibited usage of Grammarly within the company, which is a grammar-checking and writing app that is able to monitor every keystroke.

The list of prohibited apps created by Microsoft makes a great deal of sense for security-related matters, but employees still require these apps and services to better understand the market and further their own products.

Seemingly, Microsoft and Slack have been tough competitors, but the messaging service recently launched apps and integrations for Office 365 and Slack to close the gap. Microsoft had also launched the free version of Teams earlier this year, just a few weeks after the company introduced its new and creative conference call features for its Slack counterpart.

 

Source credits: https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/22/18713270/microsoft-slack-ban-aws-google-docs-prohibited-list-details