Microsoft Teams: Chat for organizers and presenters in structured meetings and webinars

🚨 The Signal: Microsoft Teams now offers a private chat for organizers and presenters in structured meetings and webinars, separate from attendees. This feature could inadvertently facilitate unmonitored communication channels, increasing the risk of information leakage or policy violations.

The Impact

Organizers and presenters are affected, with a risk of unmonitored communication leading to data leakage or non-compliance.

• Organizers: Risk of unmonitored discussions outside official channels.
• Presenters: Potential for sharing sensitive information without oversight.
• Security Teams: New communication vector to monitor for policy violations.
• Compliance Teams: Challenge in ensuring all event-related communications are captured.

The Action

1. Review existing Microsoft Teams messaging policies for applicability to private chats.
2. Update internal communication policies to address appropriate use of private presenter/organizer chats.
3. Educate organizers and presenters on the appropriate use and data handling expectations for this new chat feature.
4. Configure Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance policies to monitor relevant keywords or sensitive information types in Teams chats, if applicable.

Domain: Teams · Impact: medium · Workload: Teams