Hello! We are excited to offer Microsoft Teams shared channels to streamline communication and collaboration during your security assessments. This feature is available exclusively for customers on our Pentest and Enterprise plans. To get started, your Microsoft Teams tenant must be configured to allow external shared channels by following the steps below.

Prerequisites

• Your Teams tenant must be on a supported Microsoft 365 plan (e.g., Microsoft 365 Business, E3, or E5).

• Your Teams administrator must have the permissions required to set up cross-tenant access policies.

• If you are interested in enabling this and are not yet on a supported plan, please contact your Astra account manager.

Instructions

1. Share Your Tenant Information

Please provide the following details to your Astra point of contact:

• Your Microsoft domain name or Tenant ID (found in the Microsoft portal under Azure Active Directory > Overview).

• The email address of the specific user in your organization who will be joining the channel.

• Ensure this user has a Teams policy that allows them to "Join external shared channels".

2. Astra Configures Inbound Access

Once we receive your information, our team will:

• Add your tenant to our inbound cross-tenant access policy to permit external communication.

• Prepare the shared channel for your designated user.

3. Configure Outbound Access (Action Required by Your Admin)

Your Microsoft Teams administrator must enable external collaboration in the Microsoft Entra Admin Center:

1. Navigate to External Identities > Cross-tenant access settings.

2. Under Organizational settings, click Add organization and enter Astra’s tenant ID (which we will provide to you).

3. Go to the Outbound access settings for the Astra tenant and select the B2B direct connect tab.

4. Ensure the Access status is set to "Allow access" under both the Users and groups tab and the External applications tab.

4. Verify User Policies

Finally, ensure the participating user has the correct Teams Policy assigned. The "Join external shared channels" setting must be enabled, which can be managed via the Microsoft Teams Admin Center or PowerShell.

Expected Outcome

It may take a couple of hours for these security settings to propagate through Microsoft’s systems. Once both inbound and outbound settings are verified, Astra will send a shared channel invite to your specified user, allowing them to begin collaborating with our security team immediately.

Troubleshooting & Support

• Invite not received: Check that the outbound access settings were saved correctly and that the specific user's policy is active.

• Setup assistance: If you encounter any issues during this process, please reach out to your Astra account manager or raise a support ticket via your dashboard.