Best practices for securing your Teams meetings from unauthorised access

Essential Strategies to Safeguard Your Microsoft Teams Meetings Against Unauthorised Access and Security Threats

Every day, organisations across industries rely on Microsoft Teams to collaborate, share ideas, and stay connected—regardless of location. With security at the heart of the platform, Microsoft has designed Teams to help organisations manage meetings confidently, prevent disruptions, and safeguard sensitive conversations.

However, the rapid advancement of AI and large language models (LLMs) has introduced new challenges in controlling who—or what—enters a meeting. As automated bots and AI-driven threats grow more sophisticated, preventing unauthorised access requires a proactive and layered approach. While Microsoft Teams offers robust built-in protections, staying informed and using the right security tools is essential to maintaining secure virtual environments.

In response to growing concerns, many IT administrators have opted to disable all external access to meetings. While this may reduce immediate risk, it can also hinder external collaboration. Rather than choosing between security and productivity, organisations need solutions that deliver both.

Flotek explores best practices for protecting Teams meetings from unauthorised access while enabling open, effective collaboration.

Manage meeting access and join experience

Controlling access and verifying attendees is the first step in securing meetings. Administrators should:

• Enable the meeting lobby to hold participants until admitted by organisers.

• Set “Who can bypass the lobby” to people in my organisation to keep external users in the lobby.

• Limit “Who can admit from lobby” to organiser and co-organiser only for tighter control.

To further restrict access:

• Block specific external domains using the external access feature.

• Disable anonymous user access by turning off “Anonymous users can join a meeting” and “Anonymous users can join a meeting unverified

For added protection:

• Enable CAPTCHA-based human verification for anonymous and non-federated users.

• Use email verification (available with Teams Premium) to require external participants to verify their email before joining. Verified users will appear with an “Email verified” label, helping organisers manage access more confidently.

Protecting Sensitive Information During Meetings

• Once access is secured, safeguarding sensitive data becomes the priority. A Teams Premium subscription offers advanced protections including watermarking, end-to-end encryption, granular meeting controls, and sensitivity labels.

• Key features include:

• Watermarking: Display participants’ email addresses over shared content and video to deter unauthorised screenshots.

• End-to-end encryption (E2EE): Ensures only participants can access the communication, adding a layer of privacy beyond standard encryption.

• Granular controls: Organisers can manage who can record, transcribe, or copy meeting content, including live captions and transcripts.

• External content sharing restrictions: IT admins can control whether users can share content in external meetings.

Using Sensitivity Labels for Enhanced Compliance

• Sensitivity labels help classify and protect sensitive information. When applied to meetings, they can:

• Restrict external access

• Prevent recording

• Enforce lobby settings

• Apply calendar labels like “Do not forward”

• Enable automatic recording

• Control copying and pasting from chat

• Activate watermarking and advanced encryption

• Depending on configuration, Teams Premium applies a predefined set of meeting options aligned with the label’s classification, ensuring compliance and security.

Need help navigating the latest enhancements to Teams?  

In today’s hybrid work environment, organisations must balance security with collaboration. Microsoft Teams, especially with Teams Premium, offers a comprehensive suite of tools to help IT administrators and meeting organisers protect sensitive information while enabling productive, inclusive meetings.

By implementing these best practices, organisations can confidently host secure meetings without compromising on engagement or effectiveness.

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