Video-conferencing apps are never perfect. One way or another, you'll find a flaw or two. All of them have privacy and security issues, and the only way to deal with these problems is to secure the app yourself.
To help ensure video isn't a source of vulnerability for your company, here are some ways to secure your video conferencing:
Update to the latest version always
Security patches exist for a reason. They may be an annoyance, but they add new features or fix vulnerabilities or some bugs here and there. These bugs, by the way, are often exploited by attackers so they can get you into doing what they want. To avoid that from happening, always update your app of choice.
Don't announce your meetings for the public to see
You'll never know what happens -- pranksters are always there to take advantage. Unsecured video conferences are always the target of malicious attackers, so it's best not to make it known, at least for everybody.
Limit the knowledge only to your colleagues to avoid disruptions. Note that apps like Zoom will provide users with a personal meeting ID, which is essentially - as the name implies - a personal meeting space for the user.
Enable password protection
If you're an avid user of video-conferencing tools, you've probably heard about "Zoom-bombing." Outsiders can easily crash your meetings because you've gone without a password, or someone outside of the team managed to get a hold of your meeting ID. While the first factor might not be something the organization can control, setting a password for all video conferencing meetings should be mandatory.
Forget file transfers
Malicious attacks can happen any time, and often, people fall victim to such attacks because they like clicking on things despite the URL being unreadable.
Downloads are also an issue since there's often trust within the group. Any kind of file sent ends up on another person's downloads, and before they know it, files have gone haywire, and personal details are stolen.
Avoid all these from happening and just disable file transfer features. Better safe than sorry.
The COVID-19 pandemic has got all of us turning to video conferencing and chat apps to communicate with everybody. Using these tools comes with a risk of online attacks, so it's important that you value security and put it in your top-most priority.
These practices are in no way silver bullets, but it will help you and your colleagues have a safer online environment.
