In challenging times such as what the world is going through now, most organizations innovate, but Microsoft advises that innovations should place the specific scenarios of customers and individuals at the centre of the desired outcome.
This, the technology solutions provider says, includes ensuring the online safety and privacy of all involved, particularly the ones concerning the daily interactions that take place in meetings. “Our approach to privacy has always been grounded in our commitment to giving individuals transparency over the collection, use, and distribution of their data,” Mohamed El Nemr, modern workplace and security expert at Microsoft MEA Emerging Markets, says.
El Nemr adds that their Teams’ offering allows users to create tailored environments to suit meeting preferences across the board.
For reasons of the Covid-19 pandemic, working from the comfort of homes has become the norm and collaboration, done remotely, is now a well-oiled machine. It is crucial for daily internal interaction.
But, according to Microsoft, working remotely has brought with it the threat of ‘new and improved’ cyberattacks from unrelenting hackers. It advises that this has meant organisations need to constantly be on the pulse of ensuring that the technology solutions they employ revolve around their ever-changing needs.
El Nemr offers suggestions on what organizations should do to ensure the safety of technology solutions they employ. These include starting a private channel within a bigger team.
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“Often, sensitive information needs to be shared to specified team members within a broader team only; this may include details about a project, financials or confidential contracts that do not require holistic team protection,” he explains.
He reasons that rather than creating a new team, organisations can create a private channel within an existing team which is only accessible to designated members. This ensures a great way to provide a security layer to protect sensitive business information without creating a separate new team.
Another suggestion he offers is ensuring increased security for the team. He argues that if any of the content stored or discussed within the team is considered business sensitive, such as financial details or classified project information, applying increased protections to that team to ensure the security of the content is a good idea.
This can be accomplished by creating a new team and applying an ‘ITcreated sensitivity’ label. This label automatically applies the configured protection to the team. When creating a new team, on the sensitivity and privacy pane, select the dropdown under ‘Sensitivity’ to select an IT- created sensitivity label to apply to the team. It is always best to check with an organisation or IT department on how sensitive business information should be stored.
He also suggests controlling access to Teams meetings directly, meaning that meeting organisers can change participant settings for a specific meeting through the ‘Meeting’ options web page.
“This can be done by navigating to your ‘Calendar’, then selecting ‘Meeting’ options. Here you will be able to tailor to your requirements such as who needs to be admitted to the meeting and who can bypass the lobby to join it directly,” he explains
