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blog Channel Management How To Microsoft Teams

How to Archive a Microsoft Teams Channel [GUIDE]

Microsoft Teams is one of, if not the, most popular UC platform for companies, especially that ever since covid hit back in 2019, companies had to switch to online/hybrid work. And that created a need to have everything digitized. But as is the case with all companies, the need for archiving is never ending.

Why is it important?

Companies deal with massive amounts of data over the years of doing business, whether it was folders/files. Communication and conversations, questions and answers and even pictures.

However, archiving is important by nature, the reason for this is that companies has to keep a record of their past customers, or communication anf information. Therefore it is needed to keep important relevant data.

Imagine a company back in the 1970’s that had all of their information, customers and even leads kept within a folder, in a drawer, in a room with hundreds and hundreds of other similar files.

Who would need it?

The usual need for archiving a channel in Teams becomes necessary when you have too many Channels with a lot of information (posts, tabs, images, GIFs, and your OOO alerts).

Another common case we hear is companies creating a new Channel in Teams when they have a new client/project/task and so on and so forth. What to do with those channels when you are done with them, do you leave them as is? Do you ignore them? Do you delete them?

A common solution for this problem is archiving those channels and AGAT introduced a creative, effective, and a genius way to address this issue.

How is Microsoft addressing this issue?

The way Microsoft addresses this issue is by archiving the whole team. And in our experience, companies use teams for various reasons, however, what is currently offered by Microsoft is the ability to archive a whole team. The way AGAT addresses it is by giving YOU the ability to archive a specific channel, along with the post, files, tabs, conversations and those good morning posts between colleagues.

What differentiates AGAT`s solution from other solutions?

What differentiates our solution from others is it`s friendly, comprehensive and easy to use UI. while being elegant, straightforward and quick.

The way we address archiving is by putting the channel that you want to archive in a specialized team called “Archiving team”. That would achieve the clean up and clutter removal, keep everything organized and in one place. And you can still access those archived channels with ease and convenience.

It is also as easy as following these simple steps:

  1. Log into your dedicated SphereShield portal
  2. Select MS Teams Management from the menu
  3. Click ‘Manage’ next to the Team that you want to archive a Channel from
  4. Press ‘OK’ 
  5. Sit back and watch the magic happen 😉

You can do this action repeatedly and archive however many Channels you want. This not only cleans up your environment, but also puts every unneeded Channel in one place, reduces cluttering, and it gives you the ability to access those archived Channels whenever you want. 

Avoid reaching the 200 Channel limit in Teams today! Contact us to try Channel Management for yourself.

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Watch this short video to see how to archive a Channel in Teams:

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blog webex guides

Safe Content Inspection for Webex – Prevent harassment & bullying

The necessity for Content Filters

Sometimes security and compliance are just not enough to make sure that a business runs smoothly. There is one aspect of communication that goes barely unnoticed and still is problematic on many levels.

The advancement of technology has enabled everyone to collaborate and share information more easily. However, it has also provided another channel where harassment incidents may take place which can leave the person on the other end feeling unsafe. In the education industry, for example, students and teachers alike are required to follow a set of rules and proper practices to ensure a safe and reliable environment for all.

The corporate world must also ensure a safe environment for employees including anti-harassment policies as well as verifying that customer-facing communication is appropriate. 

Detecting unsafe content is not defined by clear rules, mostly because it is images and videos. Therefore, addressing this need requires serious machine learning involved in both detecting and avoiding false positives (labeling safe content as unsafe).

This necessity is universal and applies to small and big-sized organizations alike and especially, educational institutions that deal with minors.

Safe Content Inspection:

AGAT has introduced a new feature named Safe Content Inspection, which is now available for Webex.

By leveraging complex AI detection algorithms, AGAT is able to offer the technology that giants like Google or Facebook are currently using to keep inappropriate content away from their platforms.

The Safe Content Inspection solution inspects images -and soon videos- to detect unsafe content in the following categories:

  • Adult: the likelihood of the image containing adult content such as nudity.
  • Spoof: the likelihood that an image was modified to make it appear funny or offensive. 
  • Medical: the likelihood that this is a medical image.
  • Violence: the likelihood that the image contains violent content.
  • Racy: the likelihood that the image contains racy content such as sheer clothing or strategically covered nudity.

In Webex, AGAT’s technology is able to detect in real-time the content of the image and if it matches the categories set and take action to delete or notify on incidents identified.

As mentioned above, in the education industry, there are numerous cases where compliance, security, and institutional protocols demand tighter controls. For example, there might be a need to block 12th graders from communicating with 5th graders and restrict troublemakers from communicating with other students to prevent bullying at school.

Other than bullying, educational institutions would want to make sure a teacher is present in every communication in order to prevent student-only spaces where they might share inappropriate content under the watch of the school.

Large companies may set policies to prevent harassment in the workplace. With Webex Safe Content Inspection, companies can build a more professional environment and help employees feel less threatened.

Businesses also do not want their customer-facing team to be communicating inappropriately with clients, therefore, Safe Content Inspection can help prevent customer attrition and maintain a good image for the company.

Watch Safe Content Inspection in action:

To complete the security-compliance goals

SphereShield Safe Content Inspection was designed to help companies and organizations achieve a level of regulation and ethics needed to operate a business as it should be done.

If you would like to see a free demo of Safe Content Inspection, just Contact Us for a Free Demo Today.

Screenshots showing the solution in action:

Alice sending an image containing spoof (a funny face)

SphereShield deletes the image sent

SphereShield portal report on incident

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Microsoft Teams

Ten Security Threats to Microsoft Teams (Part 2)

In this second delivery, we continue to reveal the top 10 security Threats to Microsoft Teams

If you haven’t read the first part here’s the link: https://agatsoftware.com/blog/ten-security-threats-to-microsoft-teams-part-1/

Fourth Threat: Malware Uploaded through Microsoft Teams Files

External users could upload malware from unmanaged devices.

Guest devices aren’t company managed, so their particular status remains unknown. That includes the existence of certain anti-malware tech. Microsoft Teams channels may include several internal users, each of which is capable of a security breach via a malicious file upload.

IT admins will need to be able to block every file upload coming from an unmanaged device, or they should be able to scan uploaded content before removing it from a channel. IT management should be informed of these types of incidents.

Soultion: Threat-protection For Microsoft Teams Teams

Fifth Threat: Data Loss through Filesharing and Teams Chats

Filesharing on Microsoft Teams can result in the loss of confidential data.

Microsoft Teams allows users to collaborate on and share files. They also have the option to chat with other members. Each of these features could end up being data loss conduits, and must be regulated.

DLP technology with sensitive content-identifying abilities must be implemented directly on Microsoft Teams file shares and chats. It should include features like exceptional logic, Boolean logic for the sake of checking multiple parameters, proximity checking, file fingerprinting, dictionary matches for specific organizations, and standard DLP data identifiers.

The scans must have the ability to be performed in real-time or as close to it, as far as file uploads and messages are concerned. Further, scanning on-demand should also be an option for the sake of looking at previously shared files and messages sent within the group. Be mindful that outside users are also capable of uploading sensitive data.

Solution: Real Time DLP For Microsoft Teams

Sixth Threat: Data Loss by Way of Other Apps

Microsoft Teams application integration can result in data being sent to an unknown destination.

Microsoft Teams lets users incorporate several independent apps that are cloud-based directly into their group environments. It provides features like sales apps, project management, HR, education, business intelligence, analytics, and polling. As beneficial as these apps are to users, independent applications come with data loss risks and security concerns. Data may get passed to another service provider outside the Microsoft Teams system.

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Many apps are capable of transferring data through their own services. As such, IT administrators will require a system that can discover independent apps that are in use. Their risk profiles must be reviewed, and a workflow will need to be provided to notify, block, allow, audit, or remedy ate users of the app’s status. Access can be revoked as needed.

Seventh Threat: Sluggish Security is a Lot Better than Zero Security

Certain actions must be performed in real-time, lest you risk the data from being lost. Your security system may not be quick to respond, but that is a lot better than not having any security, which will only result in complacency.

Enforcement systems must support numerous actions based on the violation severity. Multiple actions must be available, including the following:

  • Adding incidents to the incident log.
  • Deleting a chat or file from the Microsoft Teams channel.
  • Removing the file’s shared link.
  • Quarantining a file, letting IT admins release it once it’s safe.
  • Quarantining a file, letting users release it once it’s safe.
  • Removing a user from the channel.
  • Either applying classification or DRM tags, or encrypting the file.
  • Sending notifications to bots, administrators, users, and other relevant people.

Microsoft Teams comes with several APIs (application programming interfaces) which may be used for security implementation. With that said, not all vendors prioritize this. As such, incident response times can be quantified in either minutes or even hours – meanwhile, incidents involving data loss might have already occurred. IT admins must check general response times regarding incident remediation. They need to make sure that responses are as close to real-time as possible.

Stay tuned for our third and final delivery.

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