In a bid to further bolster security Microsoft has recently announced the roll-out of end to end encryption for one to one Microsoft Teams calls. Teams already encrypts user data both in transit and at rest and it allows IT admins to establish automatic transcription and recording of all video calls.
Microsoft had this to say about the recent change:
"We're rolling out this preview of E2EE for unscheduled one-to-one calls today. When both parties in a one-to-one call turn on E2EE, the communication between those two parties in the call is encrypted from end-to-end. No other party, including Microsoft, has access to the decrypted conversation."
"With this release only the real-time media flow, that is, video and voice data, for one-to-one Teams calls are end-to-end encrypted. Both parties must turn on this setting to enable end-to-end encryption."
By default the new feature is disabled but IT admins will be able to toggle the new feature on either for the organization as a whole or for specified user groups.
If you are an admin here's how you make end-to-end encryption calls available:
- Sign into the Teams Admin Center and head to "Other Settings"
- Then navigate to "Enhanced Encryption Policies."
- From there name your new policy and then for end-to-end call encryption and select the users who can turn it on. Save these settings.
- Finally once you've finished creating the new policy assign it to users, groups or your entire company.
Users will need to be running the latest Teams update and will need to turn on end-to-end encryption in their Teams settings.
Users can do this by following these simple steps:
- At the top right of your Teams window select your profile picture or the ellipses next to it.
- Select Settings then Privacy.
- And finally turn on end-to-end encrypted calls by toggling the switch.
It's an excellent addition. Give it a try at your next convenience.
