Armorblox for Slack: Stop Phishing and Data Loss Using NLU

Communications are the lifeblood of any organization. But in a world dominated by remote work and digital workflows, humans don’t communicate in silos, whether they’re in office or at home. Email might be the true system of business record, but it’s supported - and in some cases, supplanted - by messaging applications such as Slack. While this cross-channel communication has done wonders for organizational agility, it has also paved the way for targeted attacks and data loss.

The widespread adoption of Slack has caused gaps in data visibility and security. Whether accidentally or maliciously, employees share sensitive PII/PCI information over Slack messages with noncompliant recipients. Shared Slack channels between organizations create a wormhole through perimeter defenses, further heightening the possibility of data loss. With these lapses being stringently penalized under regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, compliance across messaging platforms is not optional anymore.

Even if other cloud office environments such as email and file-sharing are regulated, lateral data loss over applications like Slack is prevalent. Since the security solutions analyzing each environment are siloed, organizations lack a unified layer of context to protect their communications.

Armorblox for Slack

Armorblox is a cloud office security platform that protects enterprise communications across email, messaging, and file-sharing services using natural language understanding. The platform connects with Slack over APIs to analyze thousands of signals across identity, behavior, and language. Organizations can use pre-configured Armorblox policies to stop malicious URLs and attachments, prevent PII/PCI disclosures, and protect against lateral data loss across cloud applications.

Integration Features

• Detect and delete malicious URLs and malware shared over Slack.
• Detect accidental or malicious data loss over Slack such as SSNs, bank account details, and unencrypted passwords.
• Prevent lateral data leaks across Slack, email, and file-sharing services.
• Study detailed message-specific analysis that draws insights from identity, behavior, and language signals.
• Leverage preconfigured policy actions to automatically warn users of noncompliant actions, delete malicious Slack messages, and block data leaks.
• Send Armorblox detected Slack incidents to downstream SIEM and SOAR solutions over APIs.

Use Case 1: Prevent Accidental PII/PCI Disclosure Over Slack

Problem

The rapid-fire and distributed nature of Slack messages often brings data protection and compliance into question. With the aim of speeding up business processes, employees accidentally share sensitive information such as SSNs, bank account details, and passport numbers over Slack messages or documents. The presence of shared Slack channels across multiple organizations further exacerbates the danger of data leaks.

Solution

Armorblox analyzes all Slack messages to build baselines around identity, behavior, and language for every organization. The platform detects any instance of PII/PCI information being shared on Slack. Security teams can set predefined actions that warn users of noncompliant actions and block confidential/sensitive data from being shared with unauthorized parties.

Benefit

Armorblox helps security teams gain control over the hitherto distributed nature of sensitive data residing in Slack. Detecting every PII/PCI disclosure enables security leaders to accurately measure risk exposure. Customizable actions (warning, blocking) help security teams assign response steps according to the severity of the violation, safeguarding people and data without sacrificing organizational productivity.

Use Case 2: Stop Lateral Data Loss Across Slack and Email

Problem

The disparate and siloed nature of DLP solutions has made it tougher for security teams to gain visibility over sensitive data, whether at rest or in transit. Since there’s no universal context identifying data as sensitive across applications, an employee can easily download sensitive data from an email and share it with noncompliant recipients over Slack.

Solution

Armoblox connects with email, messaging, and file-sharing services over APIs to build contextual baselines that run across applications. Based on preconfigured policies and user-defined inputs, the Armorblox platform has a universal understanding of what constitutes sensitive and confidential data. Organizations can set predefined actions that warn users of noncompliant actions and block confidential/sensitive data from being shared with unauthorized parties.

Benefit

Armorblox helps security teams avoid the swivel-chair fatigue that comes from piecing together context across multiple security solutions. Predefined and automated response actions ensure compliance while also minimizing manual, repetitive work. Customizable actions (warning, blocking, deleting) help security teams assign response steps according to the severity of the violation, safeguarding people and data without sacrificing organizational productivity.

We hope you found this integration overview useful! To learn more about the Armorblox integration with Slack, download our solution brief below.