Microsoft would have a list of software and services whose internal use has been banned or discouraged. That list includes software such as Slack, Google Docs and Amazon Web Services (AWS). That’s what GeekWire reports, who got hold of the list.
The list includes services that Microsoft competes with. However, the main reason why technology is on the list is because of cyber security and the protection of trade secrets. The list contains several categories, including a category of technology that is prohibited to be used. This category includes Slack, but also the Grammarly grammar check and Kaspersky security software.
About Slack, the company says that the free, standard and plus versions of the service do not contain the controls required to protect Microsoft’s intellectual property properly. “Existing users of these solutions should migrate their chat history and files related to Microsoft business to Microsoft Teams, which offers the same features along with integrated Office 365 apps, call functions and meeting functions.
According to Microsoft, Slack Enterprise Grid does meet the security requirements. “Both Microsoft and Slack refused to respond to the news.
Discouraged software
In addition, the list contains a category of technologies whose internal use is “discouraged”. These include AWS, Google Docs, PagerDuty and the cloud version of GitHub. Microsoft took over GitHub last year for $7.5 billion. Microsoft warns its employees not to use the cloud version specifically for “highly confidential types of information, specs or code”. GitHub’s on premise variant is not on the list.
In the case of AWS, the company claims that there is a “business justification” required to use the service. “It is strongly recommended to start a migration plan to Azure before asking the Governance team for a renewal or a new request.”
Finally, like Slack, Grammarly is banned by Microsoft. This is because the add-in and browser extensions of this service may access content in emails and documents covered with Information Rights Management. This could lead to the exposure of sensitive data, according to the company.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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