- Microsoft Teams gets better bot protection
- Humans will now have to clear any bots or agents participating in a meeting
- Developers will be able to register and pre-clean their agents
Microsoft is cracking down on bots that infiltrate Teams meetings, bringing in a new technology that will let humans verify that all participants in a call are who they say they are.
Like a nightclub bouncer, the new tool will require a human user to check the identity of bots in the caller’s lobby before the meeting begins.
The company says it used a combination of “behavioral and infrastructure signals to identify bots with a higher degree of accuracy” in order to increase Microsoft Teams’ ability to “distinguish between bots and human participants when they join a meeting.”
Bots in teams
Rolling out now, the launch comes as transcription and note-taking bots and agents become an increasingly common sight in meetings — ostensibly to help participants summarize and remember details, but these unwanted guests can also pose a security and privacy risk.
“Bots are starting to join meetings that participants never intended for them to join,” Microsoft product marketing manager Meera Ajam wrote in a company blog post. “For example, after connecting a third-party service to a meeting, some users have found that its bot continues to join future meetings automatically.”
“Admitting a bot should be a conscious decision, not something that happens by mistake,” Ajam added, noting that multiple clicks from a human are now required for a bot to gain access.
If this sounds like unwanted extra hassle, never fear—Microsoft says it’s added a way for users to pre-vet agents or bots—specifically, “a registration path for independent software vendors (ISVs) that build meeting experiences for Microsoft Teams.”
“Once Teams recognizes that marker, it can identify the bot as a known participant,” Ajam wrote.
This means developers will be able to register with Microsoft to ensure their tools are cleared for use in Teams, with Ajam noting that the company is working with “a limited set of ISVs to demonstrate this capability and validate the experience before wider availability.”
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