Microsoft has revealed that end-to-end encryption will be coming to Microsoft Teams later this year.
At Ignite 2021, the vendor said the encryption will support one-to-one calls for commercial customers. It will be available in preview in the first half of this year.
Microsoft said it will “help customers meet their security and compliance requirements by providing an additional option for conducting sensitive online conversations”.
“For example, a call from an IT admin giving an employee her password over Teams could be conducted with E2EE,” Microsoft said.
In the first release, customers will be able to enable the encryption for unscheduled calls.
Microsoft added that further updates would “support customers evolving compliance needs” and expand to scheduled calls and online meetings.
IT departments will have full discretion over who in an organisation can use encryption.
Nicole Herskowitz, General Manager of Microsoft Teams, said: “Regardless of how and where work happens, you shouldn’t have to compromise the safety of your people and data.
“Think of when you review financial data or discuss a confidential new product launch. You want to ensure that what is discussed stays between people in the conversation.
“It is our commitment to continue partnering with our customers to support more secure and trustworthy communications and collaboration”
This will be the first time end-to-end encryption has been a feature of Teams, with data currently encrypted in transit and at rest. SharePoint files are protected by SharePoint’s encryption, with OneNote encryption protecting notes, according to Microsoft.
From a compliance perspective, Teams multi-geo support will also be added in H1 this year.
This will give customers greater control over where their Teams date is stored – similar to the controls they already have in place for date in Exchange Online and SharePoint Online.
Microsoft also revealed an invite-only function stops participants who weren’t directly invited from entering meetings, even if the invite has been forward to them.
You can view our Ignite content hub here.
