Understanding the Risks That Comes with Conducting Virtual Meetings
With the relentless threats to digital security nowadays, organizations and individuals’ first priority when it comes to communication within the business should be making sure that all the shared data and information is safe and secure. While the benefits of collaboration technologies such as virtual meetings are acknowledged, there are a number of risks and security implications that are neither totally understood nor properly dealt with. Strangely, many organizations pay very little attention to the security of virtual meetings – a lot of companies still have outdated security software or lack the necessary security policies. On a more granular level, it is typically an afterthought for most participants, even to some hosts, if they think of it at all.
All types of meetings, whether conducted physically or virtually, often include the discussion of sensitive and confidential information which, when compromised, can result in failed projects or even loss of revenue. Businesses already spend huge amounts of money on security applications, firewalls, and other InfoSec technologies to protect files and prevent unauthorized access to corporate systems but many still seem to overlook constant activities such as virtual meetings or conference calls.
When choosing the right service provider, it is vital to consider not only ease of use and accessibility, but the security of the virtual meeting solution or tool as well.
Three Spectrums of Data Leakage to Watch Out For:
Company eavesdropping
- Risks are normally minimal with company eavesdroppers especially if the supporting platform is owned and operated by the same organization.
Corporate Espionage
- This is a technique being used by some businesses to spy and access critical information from their rival companies. In this case, it may include any of these activities: illegally intercepting data shared online, trespassing onto a competitor’s property, hacking into their computers, wiretapping, or infusing their websites with malware.
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Negligence/Recklessness
- Because there are still businesses where digital security is not seen as a priority, there is also a noticeable complacency around the security of virtual meetings. On that note, employees are very prone to committing mistakes merely because of recklessness and negligence. Common mistakes include logging in your accounts on other computers and not logging out, giving access to whoever will use that computer next or assigning someone else to attend a meeting on your behalf and giving them a copy of your unique conference passkey.
It is critical that organizations be able to recognize these often-overlooked security risks, and identify them based on risk tolerance or appropriately mitigate them to ensure virtual communication does not introduce unintended or unknown risks into the enterprise.
Specific Features to Further Secure Your Meeting:
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Registration
Participants should be able to register ahead of time, and each registrant should receive a unique call entry ID for single use only. There are services that provide real-time registration and attendance reports either daily, weekly, or after the event depending on your preference. This way, your organization can keep track of the attendance leading up to the meeting and after the meeting itself. This is especially beneficial for conducting large conference calls, where it can get trickier to monitor a larger number of attendees.
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Unique Pins
There are services that provide unique passkeys to every participant. Having a unique passkey eliminates the possibility of uninvited participants. This allows you to easily monitor which among the expected participants have already joined. An additional level of security is utilizing a host pin. Participants will be on hold before the meeting or conference until the host dials in using the host pin.
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Sub conference composed of hosts
Another helpful feature would be using pre or post-conference sessions in breakout rooms. A pre-conference enables the final preparation, scripting, and coordination of presenters before the meeting. This will allow you to settle any confidential last-minute changes before joining the meeting. The post-conference allows presenters to debrief privately after the meeting.
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Dial out capability
Operators or hosts can dial out to participants that are either hard to reach or is an international party. This way, the organization is still in control of other participants being added to the meeting.
Remember that security operations must flow down to even the most basic of corporate communications; be it for teleconferencing, video conferencing, or web conferencing.