Microsoft Teams Introduces New Controls To Automatically Block External Meeting Bots

Microsoft is strengthening security and privacy controls in Teams with a new meeting protection policy that will allow administrators to automatically prevent detected external bots from entering meetings.

The forthcoming control expands Microsoft’s existing bot-detection capabilities, which currently identify suspected third-party meeting assistants, label them as bots and hold them in the lobby until an authorized participant approves their admission.

Under the stricter policy, detected external bots will be blocked automatically. Meeting organizers will no longer need to review or reject each attempted bot admission manually, reducing the risk that an automated assistant could enter a sensitive discussion because of human error, confusion or an overly permissive lobby configuration.

The change is particularly relevant to organizations whose employees routinely participate in meetings involving confidential business strategy, customer information, regulated data, legal discussions, intellectual property or security incidents.