In today’s digital workplace, Microsoft Teams has become foundational to collaboration and productivity. Yet, its trusted role is now being exploited by cyber adversaries. Recent campaigns have seen malicious actors impersonate IT support via Teams chats or calls, tricking employees into granting remote access and deploying dangerous malware. Tactics often begin with social engineering and escalate into full-scale compromise through tools such as Quick Assist, AnyDesk, or PowerShell-based payloads.
One emerging campaign impersonates help desk staff to persuade users to connect via remote-assistance tools—sometimes after overwhelming inboxes with spam-and then deploy malware like DarkGate or ransomware such as Black Basta. Another trend, observed in stealth campaigns, involves threat actors exploiting Teams to drop malicious PowerShell commands or payloads, further establishing persistence and enabling exfiltration.
These campaigns exploit human trust in workplace tools, misuse default configurations in Teams and Quick Assist, and rely on impersonation to evade traditional email filters.
Conclusion
As Teams continues to accelerate collaboration, organizations must recognize that cyber risk travels alongside its benefits. Attackers now target trusted internal systems to bypass conventional defenses. Guarding against these threats requires not just technical controls, but a strategic shift in security posture-enhanced visibility, user empowerment, and deliberate configuration. It is imperative to treat communication platforms not as safe by default, but as high-priority defense boundaries.
About COE Security
COE Security partners with organizations in financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and government to secure AI-powered systems and ensure compliance. Our offerings include: AI-enhanced threat detection and real-time monitoring Data governance aligned with GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS Secure model validation to guard against adversarial attacks Customized training to embed AI security best practices Penetration Testing (Mobile, Web, AI, Product, IoT, Network & Cloud) Secure Software Development Consulting (SSDLC) Customized CyberSecurity Services
From the insights in this article, COE Security supports your organization by:
- Strengthening collaboration platform security, auditing Teams and Quick Assist configurations, and blocking unauthorized external access
- Deploying AI-driven anomaly detection, spotting unusual access requests or external impersonation in real time
- Delivering tailored training, empowering staff to recognize social engineering threats masquerading through trusted tools
- Testing and validating defenses, including simulated attack scenarios in collaboration platforms to assess posture and response readiness
Follow COE Security on LinkedIn for ongoing insights into safe, compliant AI adoption and to stay cyber safe.