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KnowBe4 Extends Threat Detection to Microsoft Teams


KnowBe4 Extends Threat Detection to Microsoft Teams
  • by: Business Wire
  • |
  • May 30, 2026

KnowBe4, the global leader in digital workforce security, securing both AI agents and humans, today announced the launch of KnowBe4 Messaging Security to secure Microsoft Teams. The KnowBe4 Platform now offers a unified defense across organizations' two most critical collaboration channels, chat and email. This new offering closes the exposure gap that exists between email protection and employee collaborative tools like Microsoft Teams.

Quick Intel

  • KnowBe4 Messaging Security monitors messages from outside organizations to catch phishing early.

  • Scans for dangerous default settings in Microsoft Teams with Posture Monitoring tool.

  • Humans-on-the-loop approach with report-only mode before enabling automated blocking.

  • Unified global block list across both email and Microsoft Teams for known bad actors.

  • According to KnowBe4's report, Microsoft Teams is rapidly emerging as major target for social engineering.

  • Available in June 2026.

The Growing Threat in Collaboration Tools

According to KnowBe4's Phishing Threat Trends Report Volume 7, Microsoft Teams is rapidly emerging as a major target for sophisticated social engineering and phishing attacks. Given the innate trust people place in messaging tools, cybercriminals are exploiting this by impersonating IT helpdesk staff to steal credentials and carry out domain takeovers. Many organizations allow anyone from outside of the organization to connect with employees on Microsoft Teams by having no domain restrictions set. This exposes them to cyber threats that can easily bypass standard filters.

Organizations can now detect and remediate threats directly within Microsoft Teams. This also provides organizations with previously unavailable visibility into risks associated with external communications.

Key Features of KnowBe4 Messaging Security

Monitoring messages from outside the organization to catch phishing and social engineering attempts early.

Scans for dangerous default settings in Microsoft Teams to highlight the configurations that allow unrestricted external access and offers steps to fix them with the Posture Monitoring tool.

A humans-on-the-loop approach where admins can test detection accuracy in report-only mode before enabling automated blocking.

A unified global list across both email and Microsoft Teams, ensuring that known bad actors are blocked across the channels simultaneously.

Assigned classification tags and risk levels of Microsoft Teams messages to allow for quick triage by admins, similar to the KnowBe4 Inbound Email Security experience.

Leadership Perspective

"KnowBe4 Messaging Security has been launched with the goal of enhancing, not hindering, teamwork," said Greg Kras, Chief Product Officer at KnowBe4. "This provides organizations with a single, unified console that seamlessly secures both email and chat environments, starting with Microsoft Teams. By removing the uncertainty from chat interactions, we empower employees to collaborate confidently. This ensures that both internal and external collaboration drives business value, rather than introducing new liabilities."

Customer Perspective

"We recognized that one layer is not enough to detect and neutralize the numerous advanced phishing threats targeting GMMH day-to-day work," said Kevin Orritt, Cyber Security Manager at GMMH. "KnowBe4 Defend not only provides an additional layer of defense but also supplements our security awareness training. Defend's clickable banners allow employees to continuously develop their cybersecurity awareness."

About KnowBe4

KnowBe4 empowers the modern workforce to make smarter security decisions every day. Trusted by more than 70,000 organizations worldwide, KnowBe4 is the pioneer of digital workforce security, securing both AI agents and humans. The KnowBe4 Platform provides attack simulation and training, collaboration security, and agent security powered by AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Defense Agents) and a proprietary Risk Score. The platform leverages 15 years of behavioral data to combat advanced threats including social engineering, prompt injection, and shadow AI. By securing humans and agents, KnowBe4 leads the industry in workforce trust and defense.

  • Phishing ProtectionSocial EngineeringEmail Security
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