As a large amount of work is now conducted from home on the Internet, web security is more important than ever. This applies to any business, not only top-secret documents. Your financial statements, even your client lists and anything else that a competitor might find useful should be protected as best as you can. Video conferences are something that should be conducted with the utmost security possible.
It is easier than you might think for someone to eavesdrop or even participate in a video conference. Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous people who take pleasure in disrupting or causing harm for no valid reason, so it isn’t only your competitors you need to worry about, but anyone with enough time and knowhow who wants to cause problems.
Obviously good security on your own computer is a given, and this includes anti-hacker and firewall, the whole works. You can send encrypted emails, thus protecting them, but video conferencing is somewhat different.
To begin with, choose the platform for your video conference carefully. They are not all the same and some provide more security than others, so a little research could stand you in good stead.
Send invitations to the meeting and only allow invited people to participate. Along with the invitation you can send a password or a meeting ID which they must use to sign into the meeting. This helps stop unwanted intruders.
Tip: Be careful of passwords – they can be easily hacked if you use a simple one. Many common ones are a family member’s name or date of birth. Make yours odd and unique but do keep a record of it.
It goes without saying that you should not put details of your meeting time, platform, etc on any social media websites, as this is an open invitation to anyone with the knowledge to crash the meeting and do harm.
Many platforms offer you various tools to help secure your video conference and these include locking the meeting once everyone is present, and also a virtual waiting room so any late arrivals will be held there until you are informed of their presence, at which point you can decide to allow them in or not.
During the video conference a virtual background is not a bad thing. Not only does this look more professional than a view of your fireplace, it also allows no one to see details of your home which could then be used against you at some point. If you not using a virtual background check what your camera is showing and remove any family photographs, certificates with names on them and other things that might give away information.
If you notice anything risky on a colleague’s screen suggest they remove it as well.
You can always use audio without video, if the meeting you’re holding suits, but in many cases it is preferable to see someone’s face and see the reaction and expression as they are talking or listening.
Unless it is necessary, and you trust the participants implicitly, you shouldn’t allow recordings of the meeting. Most platforms allow you to set up conferences so only the host can record. You can then choose to send the recording to any participants you wish. Another option is to get the recording transcribed, (which we at Singapore Transcription can do for you, as our professional transcriptionists have a lot of experience in this line of work). You can then send the full document, or a carefully edited version to anyone who needs the information.
Some video conference platforms offer security features as an optional extra, but it is well worth the cost of getting these for added security.