Microsoft announces that Teams is finally getting support for end-to-end encryption. The support will come later in 2021 and means that all communication – from your computer to Teams and colleagues – is fully encrypted.
- Higher security – but only for some data
- Different forms of encryption depending on the data that applies
- End-to-end encryption is only for a small amount of data right now
End-to-end encryption in Microsoft Teams is specially designed for situations where extra sensitive information is shared between two people. Like when an IT administrator has to give a colleague a password or something.
Therefore, end-to-end encryption only works with unplanned video calls in the first implementation. However, Microsoft says that encryption will be expanded in Teams in the future to also cover scheduled calls.
However, not all situations that are not covered by end-to-end encryption are completely unprotected.
Regular meetings are not covered by the new encryption, but here another variant is used that allows data that is sent and received to be saved by approved services within Microsoft.
Depending on what the data looks like and where it is in the communication chain, Microsoft uses either SharePoint encryption or OneNote encryption.
Did you know that the nearest competitor Slack does not use end-to-end encryption?
And that Zoom started rolling out only in October last year, but without being completely ready for all users?
