Video calls have become more common nowadays. People stay at home more, but they still need to keep in touch. Video calls help them stay in touch and catch up even with the long distances. Subsequently, there are numerous conferencing software like Google Meet or Zoom, which have been integrated into the daily lives of businesspersons. Business meetings are now being held virtually more often than they used to. This is the new normal in the world of business. However, this is not entirely a bed of roses. There is a downside to video conferencing. Malicious hackers tend to look for vulnerable spots within the network with hopes they may find a loophole and spread malware, which will enable them to gain access to private meetings.
To avoid such a scenario, here are six of the best practices you can follow to ensure your video conference is secure.
Create a meeting password and ID
Video conference security should be a major priority. This will keep the employees and the company safe from cyber threats. Hence, creating a meeting password and ID will enable you to minimize the security risks with those calls. Passwords will help block any intruder who may want to invade the meeting. Anyone without the correct password will automatically be denied access to the meeting. When generating passwords, always ensure you make complex ones with unique characters, numbers, and letters both in the upper and lower case. Avoid using weak passwords such as ones comprised of purely numbers or letters.
Lock the meeting
Once you are sure that everyone has joined the meeting using the provided meeting ID and password, you may proceed to lock the virtual meeting so that no one else joins afterwards. If anyone is late, they will be forced to send a request to the administrator requesting permission to join. You may grant or deny access. This makes it harder for any intruder to access any sensitive data shared during the meeting.
Create a waiting room
A virtual waiting room plays the role of an actual waiting room. Once the virtual waiting room is set up through the video conferencing software, you may now place the participants in separate “rooms” before they join the meeting. This means that the host also doubles up as the gatekeeper. Hence, you will be able to admit everyone who is approved to be in the meeting. In doing so, you will be able to keep anyone else out. This is an excellent security protocol that effectively keeps intruders at bay.
Do not share the video links widely.
By sharing the links widely, you risk sending them to the wrong person. As you send out video invites, consider whom they are going out to. This means that you should only send invites to people using secure channels and to participants who are well known to you. It is always advisable to avoid sharing links through social media or the public domain, as this will make it easy for the outsider to find them.
Consider using audio without the video.
If you do not need a video for the meeting, you may consider doing without it. Conducting the meeting without video minimizes the risk of any malicious actor using a social engineering attempt to collect information about the content being shared or the team in the meeting. Further, audio-only meetings use less bandwidth.
Reduce screen sharing
Security risks like “zoom bombing” occur because the participants did not turn off the screen sharing in the security settings. Hence, as a default, you may only allow the host to screen share and when the meeting begins, allow the participants to share.
Wrapping up
This post discusses some security practices during a video call. However, if you need more video conferencing security best practices, click on the link for more details.