8 Effective Ways to Minimize Oversharing in Microsoft 365

The ease of sharing information these days is a double-edged sword. While Microsoft 365 is filled with powerful tools to make collaboration easier, they also open the door to an all-too-common nuisance: oversharing. 

This seemingly innocent act of granting broader access than necessary can expose sensitive data, weaken your organization's security posture, and even impact the effectiveness of emerging AI tools. Understanding the nuances of oversharing is the first step towards robust Microsoft 365 data protection and enhanced Microsoft 365 data security. 

In this article, we’ll explore actionable strategies to minimize oversharing risks in Microsoft 365 and ensure your organization’s valuable data remains secure.

What Is Oversharing and Why Does It Happen?

In the world of Microsoft 365, oversharing refers to the practice of granting access to information that goes beyond what is necessary or appropriate. It happens when individuals share files, folders, or other resources with more people than needed or for a longer period than required. 

Oversharing can occur both unintentionally and intentionally, and it often arises from misunderstanding access controls or underestimating the sensitivity of the information being shared.

Common Causes of Oversharing

• Accidental Sharing:  Sharing links or failing to adjust permissions can lead to unintended access.
• Inadequate Understanding of Share Settings: Users may not fully understand Microsoft 365's sharing options, leading to broader access.
• Default Settings: Default permissions often allow unauthorized access by unintended users.
• Collaborative Culture: In highly collaborative environments, information is shared without considering who actually needs access.

Risks and Consequences of Oversharing in Microsoft 365

Oversharing isn't just a minor inconvenience; it poses significant risks to an organization's security, privacy, and compliance. Let's break down the key risks:

• Unintentional Visibility: Incorrect sharing settings can grant access to the wrong individuals.
• Increased Exposure to Data Breaches: Sharing sensitive data unnecessarily increases the risk of cyberattacks.
• Weakened Security Posture: Lax access controls create vulnerabilities for internal and external threats.
• Impact on AI Tools: Tools like Microsoft Copilot may surface sensitive data not meant for public access. Previously, users needed to know what to search for. With Copilot, users can ask broad questions, and the AI may pull in information from overshared locations, surfacing confidential or irrelevant data more easily. Learn more about Copilot oversharing, and how to fix it.
• Internal and External Risks: Sharing internal data with unauthorized employees or external parties increases exposure.
• Privacy Violations: Oversharing can violate individual privacy, especially when personal information is made available to people or entities who shouldn't have access to it.
• Data Breaches: In the worst-case scenario, oversharing could lead to a data breach, exposing sensitive or classified information.

Common Oversharing Scenarios in Microsoft 365

Oversharing often arises from misunderstandings of Microsoft 365's sharing settings. The importance of managing oversharing is heightened when using advanced tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot, which can amplify the risks of unintentional exposure. 

Below are some common oversharing examples that organizations should be aware of:

Site Privacy Set to Public

• Problem: Sites mistakenly set to "Public" are accessible to anyone on the internet, exposing sensitive content.
• Risk: Public sites can lead to unauthorized access, making your data visible and searchable to everyone.
• Solution: Regularly check and set privacy settings to restrict access to authorized users only.

Default Sharing Link Settings Set to "Everyone"

• Problem: The default “Copy Link” setting grants access to anyone with the link.
• Risk: Sensitive data may be shared with unintended individuals outside and within the organization.
• Solution: Choose the correct sharing links for the intended audience and change the default link settings to restrict access to specific individuals or groups.

“Everyone Except External Users” Group

• Problem: Using this broad group to share content may expose data to more internal users than necessary.
• Risk: Unintended access to sensitive information within the organization.
• Solution: Share content with specific individuals or smaller, targeted groups instead of relying on broad groups.

Incorrect Permissions

• Problem: Adjusting permissions at the file level can break inheritance, leading to inconsistent access.
  Risk: Unintended users may gain access to sensitive content.
  Solution: Ensure permissions are consistent across sites and files, and avoid breaking inheritance unless necessary.

External Sharing and Access

• Problem: Without restrictions, users can share content externally with any domain.
• Risk: Sensitive information may be shared with unauthorized external parties.
• Solution: Set external sharing policies to limit sharing to trusted domains or approved users only.

Unintentional Sharing

• Problem: Users accidentally share data with individuals who don’t need access.
• Risk: Unnecessary exposure of data, even if not highly sensitive.
• Solution: Always verify the intended audience before sharing and use granular access controls.

Strategies to Avoid Oversharing

Preventing oversharing requires a proactive, multi-layered strategy. Effective M365 content search capabilities can play a vital role in identifying existing oversharing vulnerabilities.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

While not directly related to oversharing prevention, implementing two-factor authentication adds an additional layer of security. It ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive data, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and protecting shared content from potential security breaches.

User Education and Training

Employees need to understand the risks and be trained in best practices for secure file sharing. On the admin side, establishing and enforcing clear permissions management is critical to limiting access to a need-to-know basis. 

Regular Auditing and Monitoring

Regular audits and ongoing monitoring of sharing settings are critical to detecting oversharing. Periodically reviewing permissions and access patterns ensures that files, folders, and sites are shared with the right audience.

Orchestry helps streamline this process with centralized workspace reporting, allowing admins to monitor who has access to what across SharePoint sites and Teams. This helps tame the often-complex web of SharePoint permissions.

Change Default Share Link Settings

Guide users towards secure file sharing methods. One of the best ways is by making tenant-level default sharing links as restrictive as possible. For more granular control, you can use Orchestry's templates to set default workspace share link type to "People with Existing access" at the site level where appropriate. Orchestry also supports setting template defaults for ownership, permissions, and sensitivity to proactively manage information access.

Control External Collaboration

Configure allowed external domains at both the tenant and site levels. For an extra layer of precaution, apply sensitivity labels to help classify data and enforce appropriate sharing restrictions. These labels should also be applied retroactively to existing content to ensure thorough coverage. 

Orchestry's Health Checks feature helps automatically surface risky sharing links and provides recommendations, such as applying container-level sensitivity labels or removing problematic links, to keep confidential information from being overexposed, especially with tools like Copilot. 

Set Clear Permissions

Clear and effective permissions management is essential for limiting access to a need-to-know basis. Setting permissions that restrict access and ensuring that only authorized users have access to specific data is key to minimizing oversharing.

Orchestry provides a single dashboard to manage permissions across all SharePoint sites and Teams. No more clicking through dozens of sites to figure out who has access to what.

Manage Data Governance

Orchestry's governance features can be used to establish clear guidelines for site creation and automate review cycles for permissions. This includes robust external access oversight, making it easier to monitor and control how data is shared with people outside your organization.

Use Orchestry

With powerful lifecycle management capabilities, Orchestry helps you automatically archive or remove inactive groups and sites—keeping permissions relevant and reducing data clutter. Built-in auditing tools make it easy to monitor sharing links, guest access, and group memberships, helping you enforce the principle of least privilege. Intelligent recommendations and workspace templates guide the creation of new collaboration spaces with the right security and sharing settings from the start—preventing oversharing before it begins.

Put Oversharing in Its Place

By fostering a culture of security awareness, implementing these technical safeguards, and leveraging dedicated governance platforms, businesses can significantly mitigate the risks tied to oversharing in Microsoft 365. This gives your organization the best of both worlds: collaboration with minimal friction, plus uncompromised integrity and security for valuable organizational data.

To learn more about how Orchestry can help, download our features sheet.