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Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

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Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#191

Post by tw04 »

miki123211 wrote: post #184
tw04 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it’s literally the dumbest feature ever. There’s absolutely nothing preventing a user from pulling out their phone and taking a picture of any slide they want. Or having a camera recording the whole session out of view of their webcam. It is security theater at its peak.

There are two kinds of people in the world, those who completely misunderstand the value of friction, and those who depend on friction too heavily; GP clearly falls into the former group. This feature provides value because it increases friction. It won't stop really determined and motivated users from leaking, but it'll make leaks, especially accidental leaks / those due to hacks, a lot less common. The same applies…

I work in security. I have had customers request this feature. I have asked them to do an anonymous survey of users to ask what action they would take if they were blocked from taking screenshots and users universally say they’d take a picture of their screen with their phone.

I don’t underestimate friction, I just know even my grandma would reach for her camera for a picture of her screen and she doesn’t even know what a screen capture is. It’s a stupid feature that doesn’t create friction, it just encourages users to take an untraceable action.

I would FAR prefer recording who took a screenshot than blocking it as a presenter.

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#192

Post by crote »

lolinder wrote: post #156
cma wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah, there are threat models that won't be stopped here Like running windows in a VM or using an HDMI capture card. And are they going to break running teams meetings when using moonlight etc. with this? If you are OBS capturing during the meeting does it get blacked out or just breaks your recording?

You don't need to elaborate on mechanisms for bypassing because you're already imagining a threat actor that is out of scope. This is primarily about blocking accidental leaks by regular employees who were asked to not record but ignored it. This kind of reuse of content happens all the time in companies of any significant size and isn't entirely stopped by simple requests or watermarks. This tool gives companies one…

> This is primarily about blocking accidental leaks by regular employees who were asked to not record but ignored it.

I think you're seriously overestimating regular employees. A significant number of people will send you smartphone pictures when you ask for a screenshot - why would they suddenly start looking into on-device screen capture when taking a picture or video of some random presentation?

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#194

Post by zmgsabst »

tw04 wrote: post #191
miki123211 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two kinds of people in the world, those who completely misunderstand the value of friction, and those who depend on friction too heavily; GP clearly falls into the former group. This feature provides value because it increases friction. It won't stop really determined and motivated users from leaking, but it'll make leaks, especially accidental leaks / those due to hacks, a lot less common. The same applies…

I work in security. I have had customers request this feature. I have asked them to do an anonymous survey of users to ask what action they would take if they were blocked from taking screenshots and users universally say they’d take a picture of their screen with their phone. I don’t underestimate friction, I just know even my grandma would reach for her camera for a picture of her screen and she doesn’t even know w…

Also, the screenshot stays within your corporate network, whereas the photo is immediately backed up to iCloud, sent over messenger, etc.

The friction pushes the flow into something even worse — while not actually changing the behavior.

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#195

Post by anigbrowl »

SoftTalker wrote: post #146
anigbrowl wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a camera on a stand or are holding up a phone, other participants will able to see it and object. Of course it's still possible to get around it. It's possible to get around anything. The idea of privacy controls is to make bad-faith jerks have to work significantly harder.

Cameras are in eyeglass frames now. Or lapel pins. The idea that someone would be noticed taking pictures is pretty obsolete.

You can certainly get cameras like that, they're not the norm. You can object to any privacy feature by pointing out that it doesn't provide guaranteed security. Personally I am tired of having my privacy eroded by people holding themselves out as security realists who are always coming up with new ways to break things and/or normalizing existing ones.

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#196

Post by artursapek »

>However, it should be noted that, even if screenshots are blocked, sensitive media and information shared in Teams meetings can still be captured by taking a photo of the conversation.

At least the article points out the reason that doing this is completely pointless

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#197

Post by kyriakos »

This kills teams for Linux users since there is no desktop client so capturing can't be prevented. Linux users will be audio only in those calls.

The worst thing about this feature is that if someone takes a screenshot it will be saved on an IT controlled computer but if users are forced to snap screen caps with their phones the sensitive information ends up on personal devices and probably cloud synced to Google drive etc

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#198

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

relwin wrote: post #138
tmpz22 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a 1:1 format this would be effective in preventing some forms of misuse because it would be obvious if an individual took out their phone and pointed it towards the screen.

Easily circumvented: Use two monitors, one positioned out of view. Use a teleprompter mirror with a camera behind the mirror. Use a video capture device, record on a separate computer. I'm sure there's sneakier ways to perform this...

These comments are akin to pointing out that the privacy door on a public bathroom stall can easily be bypassed by looking over the top of the stall walls or underneath the gap between the ground and the bottom of the wall. In their rush to be clever, they instead demonstrate that the poster completely missed the point.

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#199

Post by [deleted] »

relwin wrote: post #138
tmpz22 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a 1:1 format this would be effective in preventing some forms of misuse because it would be obvious if an individual took out their phone and pointed it towards the screen.

Easily circumvented: Use two monitors, one positioned out of view. Use a teleprompter mirror with a camera behind the mirror. Use a video capture device, record on a separate computer. I'm sure there's sneakier ways to perform this...

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Teams will soon block screen capture during meetings

#200

Post by Aurornis »

tw04 wrote: post #123
Aurornis wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All these are due to laws and regulations that are there to protect the big companies and don’t take into consideration users This feature is not due to laws and regulations. The user in this case is the presenter who clicks the button to enable screenshot protection on their meeting. This is Microsoft trying to deliver a feature their users want , not laws and regulations making them do something their users don’t…

But it’s literally the dumbest feature ever. There’s absolutely nothing preventing a user from pulling out their phone and taking a picture of any slide they want. Or having a camera recording the whole session out of view of their webcam. It is security theater at its peak.

I think it’s funny that so many of these comments assume the person clicking the “enable screenshot protection” checkbox will be unaware that participants might have camera phones. It’s equally funny to read the comments imagining participants with elaborate pre-built workarounds like hidden pinhole cameras or pre-configured HDMI splitters going into full-screen video capture on another system.

The people using this feature aren’t going to imagine it as 100% protective against any and all possible methods of exfiltrating data. It’s a feature for discouraging casual data capture and dissemination. It serves to remind people doing spontaneous captures that they aren’t supposed to, but everyone knows a dedicated person could find a way to get that photo if they really, really want.

That doesn’t make it useless. Every time you raise the level of difficulty for accomplishing something, a percentage of attempts are thwarted or discouraged. As it turns out in the real world, raising the bar even a little tiny bit is effective in thwarting or discouraging the majority of attempts across the average user base. You’re not defeating the dedicated attackers, but you’re reducing the overall number of successful attacks and even attempts.

The same is true for things like the office firewall blocking websites: Yes, we all know a dedicated engineer can create a way around it, but it’s going to stop most employees from getting to those sites and serve as a reminder to others that they’re not supposed to access them.

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