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Microsoft Adds Bot Detection and Organizer Approval to Teams Meetings

It gives organizations direct control over non-human meeting participants to reduce privacy and security risks.

Overview

  • Microsoft began rolling out a new Teams Admin Center policy in late June that detects external bots, routes them to the meeting lobby, and requires a human organizer to approve their admission.
  • Teams now combines behavioral and infrastructure signals to identify likely bots and visually flags those participants in the lobby so organizers can see who is non-human.
  • The lobby experience separates waiting participants into categories such as verified participants and suspected threats and removes one-click admit for identified bots to prevent accidental entry.
  • Microsoft is previewing a Teams Bot Identification Program with a limited set of independent software vendors so registered bots can carry a self-identification marker and be pre-cleared.
  • Admins can assign the new policy to users or groups, choose to disable detection, and expect more controls soon such as allow lists, org-wide blocking, and audit logs to support enterprise security needs.