This article introduces the SMS Secure feature, the Microsoft requirements and shows what Teams users can expect when this feature is enabled for their enterprise.
Secure SMS Feature Overview
This feature encrypts all SMS messages for Enterprises that need secure messaging, such as medical providers and financial institutions.
When Secure SMS is enabled, three things happen:
The content of all SMS messages is encrypted.
The Microsoft Purview’s Audit Log product is utilized, thus, SMS messages can only be sent from and received in the MS Teams chat interface so that all access to the SMS content can be tracked and recorded by the Microsoft Audit Log Feature.
Access to SMS content by Enterprise Administrators is only possible through encrypted download from the ConnecttoTeams Enterprise Portal, which is logged for audit purposes.
SMS Application chat screen is disabled in MS Teams. SMS messages is only available in the Teams channel that is associated with the SMS number.
Sending messages must be accomplished using the SMS message composer.
Microsoft Requirements
To use Secure SMS, Teams users must have access to the Microsoft Audit Log feature, which is available only on MS Premium subscriptions. e.g. E5 license. To enable and manage the audit logs in Teams, refer to Microsoft's guide published, as of this writing, here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/audit-teams-audit-log-events#retrieve-teams-data-from-the-audit-log.
Enabling Secure SMS Feature
Only your ConnecttoTeams service provider can enable the Secure SMS feature for an enterprise. If your enterprise would use this feature, please contact your provider enable this feature for your enterprise.
Note to Provider:
For the instruction to manage this feature, see Secure SMS Configuration.
Notes
MMS message transmissions are secured by TLS in the ConnecttoTeams application. However, be aware that not all SMS carriers encrypt MMS content. To know more about your particular MMS situation, reach out to your SMS Carrier which hosts your SMS phone numbers.