When businesses think about Microsoft 365 security, the chances are they think about external threats like phishing emails, ransomware attacks, weak passwords or compromised accounts. What businesses really think about is what’s already happening inside their business, and this starts with permissions. 

Poorly managed SharePoint permissions and within Teams can create some of the biggest long-term risk to security, productivity and compliance. The issues build gradually until your Microsoft 365 environment becomes hard to manage and difficult to trust, increasing costs and requirements to fix and support. 

How permission problems begin 

Picture this: a department needs quick access to files for a project. A ‘Team’ is created in a hurry before a meeting, someone shares a folder externally because “it’ll only be temporary”, another employee grants broad access permissions because it’s easier than dealing with support tickets later. 

Individually, all of these actions seem harmless, but collectively they create environments where nobody is fully certain who has access to what. 

Over time, organisations often discover: 

  • Former employees still have lingering access 
  • Sensitive folders are visible to wider groups than intended 
  • Guest accounts remain active long after projects finish 
  • Inherited permissions have become so tangled that nobody wants to touch them 

At this stage, SharePoint and Teams stop feeling structured and controlled and instead they become digital storage spaces that have grown organically without governance. 

Why broad permissions create a security risk 

Oversharing in SharePoint Online and Teams can pose significant risks to organisational security and privacy. When sensitive documents are shared beyond their intended audience, it opens the door to potential data breaches, unauthorised access, and compliance violations.

Moreover, the inadvertent disclosure of personal data can damage trust and lead to costly legal repercussions. 

Compliance isn’t forgiving 

Regulatory expectations around access controls are increasing rapidly, particularly for organisations that handle sensitive, personal or financial data. Businesses are often working within GDPR guidelines or working towards Cyber Essentials or ISO certifications, and auditors are expecting clear answers to questions such as: 

  • Who has access to sensitive information? 
  • Why do these people have that access? 
  • How is that access reviewed? 
  • When is access removed? 

For organisations with years of unmanaged SharePoint and Teams growth, questions like this can become difficult to answer, jeopardising your accreditations and regulatory compliance standards. 

What good compliance management looks like 

Good governance isn’t about locking everything down until collaboration becomes difficult, it’s about creating an environment that feels seamless for users whilst also remaining secure, controlled and manageable behind the scenes. This means establishing clear ownership of Teams and sites, implementing access policies, regularly reviewing permissions and maintaining visibility over guest access and inactive workspaces. 

Most importantly, the structure needs to remain understandable. If nobody in your organisation can confidently explain how permissions are managed, there’s a strong change that the environment has already become too complicated. 

Final thoughts 

Poor permissions in SharePoint and Teams rarely create immediate chaos. Instead, they quietly increase operational friction, expand security exposure and make compliance harder over time. The challenge is that these issues compound in the background until organisations suddenly find themselves managing an environment that feels difficult to control. With the right governance approach, that situation is entirely reversible. 

Microsoft 365 delivers its best value when collaboration is both effortless and secure. Talk to our team for a free review of your current estate.