Microsoft Teams’ new chat sealing option might actually prevent data leaks
It will be released to Premium users in January.
Earlier this year Microsoft debuted Teams 2.0, the new default client for the app, and along with it the Redmond-based tech giant also announced that new features will be regularly added to Teams. These new features, including the addition of Copilot, are meant to improve the experience of using Teams, and encourage users to be more productive.
But the tech giant is also making Teams more secure, and the latest entry to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap proves it. The Redmond-based tech giant will release a new option for Microsoft Teams, called Turn off copying or forwarding of meeting chat.
This option will be released in January 2024, on Teams Premium, meaning only Premium users will be able to enable/disable.
Essentially, this new option will allow organizers to turn off the copying and forwarding features in any Teams chats. Microsoft agrees that this option will slow down or even eliminate data leaks from Teams chats. Once enabled, participants in the respective meeting won’t be able to copy or forward any chats to Outlook or elsewhere.
“Turn off copying or forwarding of meeting chat” is a new meeting option that gives meeting organizer the option to disable copying and sharing features on meeting chat messages for participants in order to reduce the risk of data leak. Once this restriction is enabled, meeting chat participants will not be able to copy chat messages using menu option or keyboard shortcut, forward messages or share messages to Outlook. There is also a new Meeting Policy setting in Teams admin center for admin to control whether user can see or use this feature in Meeting Options page. Admin can also set the default value for this meeting option in Meeting Templates they create.
Microsoft
Could this new feature prevent Microsoft Teams data leaks?
Well, it’s a slippery slope with this one, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. Users won’t be able to easily share Teams chats through email or even copy the chats elsewhere, which is a good thing.
However, data leaks might happen either way. Users can screenshot their devices, or even use a third-party recording app to record the meeting and extract information from there.
Although these two methods are not as discrete as the efficient copy and paste, they can still be used to leak sensitive data, but at least Microsoft Teams won’t have anything to do with it.
If we couple this new option with devices that are already under management supervision, it could efficiently prevent data leaks, and/or find those responsible for it much faster.
What do you think about this new option? Is it a good one or not?
