#CollabTalk TweetJam November 2021

On November 30th I joined Christian Buckley’s #CollabTalk for another TweetJam – this time focused on security and collaboration.

As a reminder, if you’re new to the #TweetJam concept, Tweets are short. Currently, Twitter restricts comments to 280 characters and, where URLs are present, using URL shortening to help get the most out of this limited space. If you jump into the conversation, you may see “(1/2)” in a post, which means the poster needed more than 280 characters, so check out that person’s Twitter stream to see the rest of the message.

#CollabTalk does some great stuff helping organize the hundreds of posts that come through in an hour by breaking up the topic into seven questions and requesting everyone use #collabtalk and A1 where the number matches the question. Good stuff if you’re trying to keep up.

Below are my answers to today’s seven questions, and a few of my favorites from the community (way too many to share them all!). I welcome your feedback either in the comments or on Twitter! But if you do join us on Twitter make sure you follow the rules!! Use #CollabTalk A$ where $ is the question number (e.g., “#CollabTalk A3”).

Focusing on Collaboration Security

Happy November, my #CollabTalk tweetjam Fam – Jay Leask, Director of Strategic Accounts & Solutions #Federal @AvePointgov – very excited to join in the conversation today with @buckleyplanet tweetjam playlist on in the background #collabtalk
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

Q1 Is collaboration security an active component of your internal/customer planning? Why, or why not?

1/2 Absolutely – Data security is probably the #1 most likely thing to affect a company's value (whim of market aside). Data must be protected from external actors but also from internal mistakes. #CollabTalk #a1
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

2/2 Insecure data can lose you customers & contracts, competitive advantage, trust from the market (or employees), and cause debilitating regulatory fines. #CollabTalk #a1
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

Q2 Would you say your organization prioritizes usability over security, or vice versa, and why?

A bit of both – we design our tools to ensure security-by-design is possible while increasing adoption, but there are cases where internal security may have to be a temporary roadblock while gaps in solutions (be they ours or 3rd party) are resolved #giveandtake #CollabTalk #A2
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

A2 #CollabTalk I think it is one of the biggest mistakes that orgs make after a security incident/breach — focusing more on security and forgetting the user experience. If people can't get work done, your security is at greater risk because people will GO AROUND you.
— Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet) November 30, 2021

Q3 What are your primary collaboration security concerns, and how are you mitigating those risks?

As a former #federal contractor and supporting #usgov in #gcc #gcch and #dod, customer contracts data security and ensuring export controlled data is protected is my focus. I spend my day helping #DIB and #USG see how to expand beyond #DLP to protect it #CollabTalk #A3
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

https://t.co/VRSR37pJwB (what is it and how is it created, collected, used, shared and end of lifed), Containers-where is data stored and how is it safely shared, People-who has access to what and how is this governed #collabtalk
— danalouise (@danalouise) November 30, 2021

Q4 How does your organization handle guest access, and external collaboration as a whole?

I'm loving our Guest Access lifecycle management. Inviters become responsible for managing the user's access to the tenant while Team owners are responsible for verifying access to each team on reoccurring basis. Doesn't get easier #CollabTalk #A4
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

https://twitter.com/kevmcdonk/status/1465735071391010823

A4: Many large organizations just disable external access which forces users to find alternate ways to collaborate. @buckleyplanet #collabtalk
— suzanne george (@spgenie) November 30, 2021

Q5 How important is information architecture and data governance within your collaboration security planning?

#IA and #datagovernance are absolutely part of this puzzle as the IA helps inform what containers look like, and the easiest way to secure things is at the container level #CollabTalk #A5
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

A5: IA is the base of good data governance and content life cycle automation. We need good IA to be able to manage our data governance and apply good compliance to it. #CollabTalk
— Mike Maadarani (@mikemaadarani) November 30, 2021

I completely agree with this. The challenge is getting people to take ownership of their data. They'll say they don't have the time, but will soon speak up if you take away access to unstructured data that has not been accessed in years. #CollabTalk
— Peter Rising (@M365Rising) November 30, 2021

"If things are hard to organize/find, they don't have much value" Preach it @Byrdttoli #collabtalk #a5
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

A6 With security as the number one concern for collaboration, where are the greatest organizational gaps in security today?

In #USGov we hear a lot about #zerotrust but there is not enough focus on the container (e.g. #MicrosoftTeam) DLP on files and controls on #M365 service are great, but securing a Team gives you broader swipes so less time is required to identify the outliers #collabtalk #A6
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

on https://t.co/SSs3GJZocE @danalouise told me that her job as #CISO is to enable collaboration – I wish more security pros saw it this way #collabtalk #a6
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

Q7 For an organization at the start of their collaboration planning, what steps or security guardrails would you suggest they begin with?

2/2 IT working alone will fail, engage users, leadership, security, etc and approach it from a committee level. Everyone has their expertise, everyone has their representation. Don't go too far down the committee rabbit hole but don't run it alone #collabtalk #A7
— Jay Leask MVP #OTSTWIT #OTSBuzzkill (@jayleask) November 30, 2021

A7: Take the time to plan Information Architecture. Look at the business processes FIRST then build the solutions around them. Start security planning based on regulatory reqs then build it up from there. AND EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE! #CollabTalk #A7
— Shortcut Shari | #GeekGirls #CommunityRocks (@shortcutshari) November 30, 2021

https://twitter.com/kevmcdonk/status/1465741790103879687

Wrap Up

AvePoint’s CISO, Dana Simberkoff, is a well-known security & collaboration expert. Dana sat down with Christian after the TweetJam for a live discussion on the topic; I highly recommend checking out the interview.