Cybersecurity trends and predictions remain hot topics in the workplace, and so it's time to talk about security measures and best practices in one area—namely, video conferencing solutions.
The global video conferencing market is forecast to almost double by 2026, reaching 27.3 billion U.S. dollars. This figure certainly means that businesses around the world plan to use video conferencing even more than ever.
When your business initiates or joins an online meeting, you run the risk of sharing confidential and sensitive data with potentially unknown recipients. Not to mention becoming a victim of a malicious hacking attack.
With this in mind, let’s look at how your organization can ensure privacy in your online calls with secure video conferencing and business meeting tools.
Trends in Conferencing Security For 2023
A recent Zerify survey reveals that 84% of respondents believe that if their video conferencing solution was breached, hackers could steal sensitive company data, intellectual property, and/or trade secrets.
And with 92% of respondents reporting that they are aware of security vulnerabilities in video conferencing platforms, identifying and eliminating security vulnerabilities will be a key trend in conferencing security for 2023 and beyond.
The Importance of Securing Your Video Conferencing
Secure video conferencing ensures that your network, users, data, and meetings are not exposed to any security violations. Secure video conferencing systems apply preventative measures to protect a company’s information.
Systems employ various measures to protect and defend a company’s transmissions, including end-to-end encryption, SSO (single sign-on), and facilitating password-protected meetings.
Let’s look at some other use cases for secure video conferencing.
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To ensure secure information sharing
Whether it’s a job interview process or an informal meeting, secure video conferencing allows the safe sharing of personal or sensitive information. Slideshows made by an infographic maker or reports can easily be shown to clients or other staff members.
With this in mind, a privacy tip is to limit screen-sharing during video conferences by turning off the other participants’ screen-sharing capabilities.
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For uninterrupted trainings
Training a remote workforce has never been easier with video conferencing software solutions. Often this involves the sharing of internal documentation or confidential material.
Instead of organizing on-site training sessions, businesses can train staff uninterrupted across remote settings. This saves money and time for other important areas of the company’s growth.
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To optimize customer engagement
There’s nothing quite like video for engaging customers.
Resources like webinars make it simple for your business to reach big audiences. This type of face-to-face interaction works wonders if you’re launching a new product or delivering support to existing customers. A secure video conferencing solution with the facility to lock meetings once they’re underway and virtual meeting rooms ensure complete privacy.
Another privacy tip is to cover your webcam when it’s not in use and close the app down completely when you’re done.
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For a productive project management
Video conferencing ensures all participants have the information they need to stay productive without putting company data at risk.
A secure conferencing solution is ideal for companies that rely on productive product management to meet business goals and client deadlines.
How to Implement Secure Video Conferencing
Let’s look at some video conferencing guidelines your organization can follow to ensure the most secure events possible.
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Set up a password
Meeting passwords are number one in the fight against cybercrime.
Create a unique meeting ID and password for each meeting. Secure password protection states that you should always create complex passwords with a combination of numbers, letters, and special characters. This security measure blocks any malicious intruder attempting to gain meeting access.
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Evaluate your system’s security ability
A browser-based web conferencing tool is your best bet when it comes to security. This solution eliminates users needing to download software and install apps. In some scenarios, users working with an older software version might put your business at risk from security breaches.
In addition, domain-based security offers a controlled and secure environment. This approach enables your system administrator to apply different levels of user permissions to control access to network resources and systems.
For instance, as part of a meeting covering how to make a video presentation, you’d detail that only IT staff can access secure resources.
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Secure your links
Always check meeting request links and verify that they have come via a trusted and known source.
If an online meeting link contains unusually long links or links from an incorrect domain, you’re right to raise the suspicious content flag. You can report suspicious activity to your IT security team.
- The most secure video-sharing platform is one that supports the following:
- Encrypted data at rest with at least 128-bit AES protection
- SSO user authentication
- PIN/password protection
- Two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication
- Option to mute all participants
- Meeting lock option
- Video recording user permissions
In addition, if you’re in the healthcare industry—seek a video conferencing solution that is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This is the standard for sensitive data protection within human-related services and healthcare.
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Utilize waiting rooms
Always use your conferencing software’s waiting room virtual space feature and turn on notifications.
This helps you to become aware if someone you didn’t invite tries to join your meeting, and using a waiting room gives you time to identify everyone. You can then choose to allow them into the meeting. If the software you’re currently using doesn’t offer this feature, it’s likely time to upgrade your video conferencing software.
Don’t share video conference links outside of your conferencing platform because this creates opportunities for malicious actors to find a loophole into your video conference.
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Regularly update your security software
Updating apps and software regularly is crucial to secure video conferencing.
Older, out-of-date versions of apps are more prone to security vulnerabilities and privacy exploits. Software security updates often contain security patches and bug fixes that address issues and fix vulnerabilities.
Ensuring that your apps and devices are updated is simple enough to do—it’s typically a case of confirming updates to your visual voicemail Canada app and others as and when they arise. It’s a good idea to check your software for available updates every six months.
Before commencing video meetings, double-check with your participants that they are using the most up-to-date version available.
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Implement a security policy
With remote and hybrid workforces, plus the advent of BYOD (bring your own device) to work, it’s essential to create robust security policies.
Dictate platform-specific security settings and implement policies about who is verified to connect to the conferencing service.
As part of your security policy, check through your conferencing software to see if there are any extra privacy settings that you can enable. For example, some software facilitates hiding your email address and telephone number.
Moreover, turn off any features or settings that give the app too many permissions. Some apps allow third-party information sharing, so it’s best to disable these functions. Go ahead and delete cookies before and after video calls, too, as this gives you more control over your privacy.
Additionally, ensure that your workforce are all on board with your organization's security policies. This involves attending hands-on training sessions on tasks such as how to port a Canadian phone number or secure video conference procedures.
Training sessions should be ongoing to onboard new hires successfully and to cover any updates or changes to the system.
Conclusion
Video conferencing is an incredibly useful tool in your business’s communications toolkit.
Just ensure that you follow the best practice security guidelines to ensure your business’s online calls are private and safe from malicious cyberattacks.
Note: This blog article was written by a guest contributor for the purpose of offering a wider variety of content for our readers. The opinions expressed in this guest author article are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect those of GlobalSign.
