14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has reportedly sent a memo to its employees to recommend against using a series of products including rival products from Amazon and Google.
According to a report from GeekWire, Microsoft banned Slack Free, Slack Standard, and Slack Plus, while also discouraging the use of Amazon Web Services and Google Docs.
GitHub should no longer be used for “highly confidential types of information, specs or code,” while Grammarly is completely banned. Grammarly is a grammar and spell checker which analyzes the typed text to determine potential issues.
While at first glance it might seem like Microsoft is acting against rival products to promote its own, the company says banning some solutions and recommending against using others is a security matter.
Security concerns
Microsoft says in the memo that the security issues in these products could expose confidential information, and this is the main reason employees should use Microsoft solutions like Teams and the available alternatives.
“Slack Free, Slack Standard and Slack Plus versions do not provide required controls to properly protect Microsoft Intellectual Property (IP),” the company explains.
“Existing users of these solutions should migrate chat history and files related to Microsoft business to Microsoft Teams, which offers the same features and integrated Office 365 apps, calling and meeting functionality. Learn more about the additional features that Teams can provide your workgroup. Slack Enterprise Grid version complies with Microsoft security requirements; however, we encourage use of Microsoft Teams rather than a competitive software.”
Grammarly, in particular, can access sensitive content that employees could include in their emails and other documents, Microsoft warns in the internal memo.
“The Grammarly Office add-in and browser extensions should not be used on the Microsoft network because they are able to access Information Rights Management (IRM) protected content within emails and documents,” the software giant says.
No official statement has been provided by any of the involved parties, but this is something to be expected given the aforementioned changes are part of an internal policy.