Microsoft Outlook a Major Security Issue for WFM

Amid an unprecedented transition to work from home (WFM), Microsoft Outlook has come into focus as a security weak point.

Microsoft 365 has been an important factor for many organizations, helping their employees stay connected and productive while working remotely. Unfortunately, using Microsoft Outlook is directly linked to a higher incidence of data breaches.

Software company Egress found “that 85% of organizations using Microsoft 365 have had an email data breach in the last 12 months.” In addition, there was significant disparity between the number of data leaks experienced by companies using Outlook, versus those that weren’t.

Organizations using Microsoft 365 have seen a 67% increase in data leaks via email since March 2020 – compared to just 32% of the businesses who don’t use it. And these aren’t one-off incidents. We also learned that 15% of Microsoft 365 organizations had been breached over 500 times during that same time period.

Microsoft is already under scrutiny for its role in the SolarWinds breach. This latest report is sure to be an unwelcome one, and will likely increase scrutiny even more.

In the meantime, organizations that rely on Microsoft Outlook would do well to read the Egress report in its entirety.