Web conferencing provides audio and video conferencing along with real-time chat, desktop sharing, and file transfer capabilities. The trend of this modern means of communication has been on the rise for a few years. However, after the outbreak of the COVID-19, collaboration through teleconferencing in place of face-to-face interaction has become even more common. The coronavirus epidemic has had radical impacts on how people work and communicate. It has forced companies to adopt a business model that supports home based work. For remote working, having a feature of web conferencing on your communication system is very important.
At one end, conference video calls can be very productive for business. However, on the other end, there are some security issues related to it. So, for your own good, you need to make sure that you are not exposing yourself to hackers. It means that you could put your company’s sensitive data in danger. In such an event, you might greatly damage your business reputation. Therefore, it is important to ensure that a business conference call is done securely. You don’t need to introduce any unnecessary privacy, security, and legal risks. For your guidance, this document contains some of the main things that you need to know about web conferencing before adopting it.
Restrict Access to Web Conferencing:
It is very important to make sure that you have only allowed the meeting to authorized people when you set up a business conference call. The video conference tool permits organizers of the meeting to limit access to some electronic mail IDs. Thus, they can make sure that only their invitees can join their video call. Moreover, features like a virtual waiting room, are useable to limit access to all these sorts of meetings. For the purpose of confidentiality, you can keep individuals in the waiting rooms until the time is right.
Only Share What is Necessary:
When you require to share screen content for a conference video, it is better to share an individual application. Also, your conferencing solution may be able to select only a section of a device’s screen to share. But if screen sharing is not needed, either disable the functionality or limit its use to only the meeting host. Additionally, features like auto transcribe calls, subtitle videos, or share files should also be disabled if not required. It reduces the risk of inadvertently sharing more content than intended.
Controlling Sharing of Links and Files:
When you set up a conference, beware of the files that participants share with each other. This is because downloading and sharing viruses and malware has serious repercussions. To control this issue from taking place, you should limit the forms of files shared on every video call. You can restrict participants from sharing any executable file. If any malicious file is shared, the virus will spread onto the whole network.
You also have to be wary of the links being shared at the time of the conference. Ask the participants of the call to avoid clicking on any unsubstantiated link. If participants clink on any malicious link, it could put everyone in the call in danger.
Ensure Recording Encryption:
With most conferencing tools, you can record online events, which is great because you can share these recordings with individuals who were unable to attend. But these recordings at the same time leave you susceptible to information compromise. If you haven’t encrypted these recordings, it can prove a significant vulnerability for your data. Therefore, it is better to encrypt these recordings while in storage and transmission.
Reporting Every Suspicious Activity:
If you observe any suspicious activity when you are partaking in a conference call, be sure to report it sooner rather than later. Informing your team of IT professionals about possible security violations will make them better positioned to do the right measure against the attack.
Security attacks on communications are the reality of today and hackers are viewing video conferences as their prime targets. So, keep the IT experts in your business informed to make them take the required preventive measures. Ask every team member to do the same.
Final Thoughts:
A web conferencing platform is of no good to you if it allows you to share your important information but doesn’t provide you with security measures that ensure your info will remain protected. Yes, online video conferencing is very important for all sorts of businesses nowadays but the security of these conferences has even more significance. Therefore, follow the aforementioned guidelines and hire only those VoIP service providers about whom you feel confident they are undertaking web conferencing security needs. Web conferencing provides participants with the freedom of active interaction but its security is important to protect confidential information. It has forced companies to adopt a business model that supports home based work. For remote working, having a feature of web conferencing on your communication system is very important.
