Microsoft Prohibits Slack, Third-Party App Use For Employees

Microsoft has recently decided to prohibit its employees from relying on third-party applications to help with internal corporate processes. With this move, Microsoft is defending itself from potential sensitive data theft. However, most of these blocked apps are popular programs inside the workforce.

The banned apps so far are all versions of Slack, Github, Amazon Web Services, and Grammarly. More often than not, employees handling internal processes for any company rely on these apps and services to make their job faster if tools are needed. Microsoft has also advertised against using Slack not only because its their direct competition with the company’s own Teams app.

Aside from preventing their employees from using rival apps, security expert and former Microsoft employee Christopher Budd said that this was a good move for security reasons, according to Geek Wire.

Potentially, other companies who own on the third-party app such as Google can have an inside access with the employee discussions. Trade secrets, sensitive company data, and other internal documents could potentially be leaked through these apps. “When you’re at Microsoft, you’re at risk of state sponsored industrial espionage. These days we generally think of hacking in criminal or traditional geopolitical espionage. But industrial espionage is still out there and brings the full force of nation-state hacking to bear,” Budd told the news site.

As of now, Microsoft and Slack are now rivals on the internal corporate communications app industry, As of 2017, Microsoft has acknowledged Slack as its rival when the third-party app started making waves in many companies.

On the other end, the other apps banned out are free apps that help employees manage their corporate work. Github is known for sharing programming code throughout the internet easily. This app is only soft banned as it is from a Microsoft subsidiary and prevents the employees from relying on this app for extremely confidential material.

Additionally, Amazon Web Services and Google Docs will now require permission requirements first if employees want to use it. Lastly, Grammarly has been completely banned for Microsoft employees due to its access on potentially sensitive data on the company’s emails and servers.