June 11, 2020

Video Conferencing Security Tips for a Coronavirus World

Written By: Admin

As the coronavirus continues to rampage across the planet and cause significant disruption to our day to day lives, there is hardly a single person on the planet who’s life has not been affected in some way or another.

Not only have friends, families, and lovers been forced to spend months apart as lockdown and social distancing measures seek to curtail the spread of the plague, but businesses have either had to temporarily (we hope) shutter themselves or rapidly adapt to remote working practices. While, for some of us (this author included) working from home is nothing new, it has required significant adjustment from a large portion of the populous.

However, we can be grateful that we live in an age of unprecedented technology and connectivity which is helping people make the transition from the office to the dining table/sofa/bed.

Video Conferencing

One type of technology which has seen a staggering increase in the number of users is video conferencing. In the consumer space, people have been using the tech to keep in touch with friends and family and there have been numerous heart-warming stories of digital pubs, quizzes, birthday parties, and more.

And, in the enterprise space, video conferencing platforms have provided a convenient and elegant way for professionals to continue having meetings, as well as attend virtual conferences and more.

Unfortunately, like any digital platform, video conferencing brings with it a host of security concerns and these can often become even more keenly felt when one suddenly sees a rapid and significant upturn in users. This was exactly the situation experienced when popular video conferencing tool, Zoom made headlines for all the wrong reasons near the onset of the outbreak.

Here then are three great tips for keep your meetings secure when using video conferencing platforms.

#1 Meeting Bombing

This is when a user who is not supposed to be able to access the meeting appears in the chat. The main goal of meeting bombers is usually to cause disruption – either through making a nuisance of themselves or sharing inappropriate media such as pornography – but a few do so to gather intelligence for corporate espionage or to spread malicious links which come loaded with viruses.

Meeting bombers can be combatted by having a strong meeting password that only authorized attendees have access to and a waiting room activated. In video conferencing waiting rooms mean that anyone – even those with a password – have to be “let in” to the meeting by an administrator before they can appear in the chat window and contribute to the discussion.

Be aware of war dialing software which refers to software which can try thousands of possible passwords in seconds to work out the correct one. The more complex your password, the harder it is for the software to work it out and the waiting room is there as a last line of defense.

#2 Stolen Meeting Links/Passwords

Most video conferencing platforms require users to have a link to the specific meeting they need to attend. You paste this link into your browser or on the platform itself and are instantly taken to the correct password screen/waiting room.

The mistake a lot of organizations make is to use the same link and/or passwords for multiple meetings. This obviously increases the likelihood of hackers being able to either steal the link or use war dialing software to work out the password.

Combat this by making sure to use a different link and password combination for every meeting – also advantageous in that it means only the people within your company who need to be at the meeting have the access details.

#3 Data Sharing

We live in an age of data, of that there is little doubt. Thanks to several high profile breaches such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal which blew the lid off the way our data is bought and sold by social networks and other tech companies, people are more aware than ever regarding their data privacy rights.

Many free to use video conferencing platforms gather data on their users in much the same way Facebook et al does. As an enterprise organization, data can be incredibly powerful and damaging to your business, so make sure to check your chosen platform’s data privacy policy thoroughly before discussing important company information using it.

Final Thoughts

There you have three major security concerns you need to be aware of when taking your business online with video conferencing. You may be interested to know that net2phone has its own proprietary enterprise grade video conferencing platform, Huddle.

The security features include: