Video conferencing is one of the most widely used tools
for conducting conferences and meetings. You can initiate or take part in a
video conference with anyone at any point in time and too
from any location around the world. This is a great collaboration tool that saves time and money which other
would have been spent on travels. However, the biggest benefit of
videoconferencing is that it facilitates effective employee collaboration and
helps them stay connected on a regular basis.
Security
Concerns
Recently videoconferencing has been marred with some
security issues which led to immense losses for some business. The same can
pose a threat to your business as well if you have been using videoconferencing
on a regular basis. The latest videoconferencing solutions use the internet and
this makes it highly vulnerable to eavesdropping. The confidential
conversations of your company can be leaked by the eavesdroppers if they are
able to get access to the secured network.
As mentioned earlier, the latest videoconferencing
solutions operate over the internet and the eavesdroppers can get access to
your secured network. The bad guys can actually make life really difficult for
the business houses if they are able to secure access to your network by using
the holes in the videoconferencing system. The breach will not only allow the
eavesdroppers heart the confidential conversations but also answer calls. The
videoconferencing solutions that do not use a firewall protection can be easily
accessed by the hackers.
Hacking
The threat becomes even more critical when the hackers
are able to gain access to conference rooms of the companies that work with
sensitive data, which might include anything from legal documents to health
records. A few of such network breaches allowed the hackers to use the IP
cameras and zoom in on the sensitive documents and even capture the keystrokes
when participants typed passwords.
Videoconferencing systems can be vulnerable to some
other forms of attacks wherein the hackers can disrupt important meetings by
getting into the middle of conversations or completely disconnecting some of
the participants in a conference. The hackers can even redirect the network
traffic to pass through their computers and create a lot of problems for the
concerned companies.
Less
Risks with Secured Network
If you have an intranet setting for installing your
videoconferencing system then the risks are much lower for your organization.
You will be using the secured network of your company instead of the internet
to connect to the different buildings of your company or branch offices at
other locations. Hackers seldom find their way into secured internal company
networks as it is tougher to breach the security. However, if you are using
third party videoconferencing solutions then the traffic would be transmitted
over the internet making it vulnerable to security threats. You can overcome
this problem by beefing up the internet security and giving core network access
to only reliable employees.
Two
Pronged Protection
There is a two pronged approach to making your
videoconferencing sessions safe – create a secured network for the
videoconferencing system to work on and choose a solution that uses the updated
digital certificates and standard encryption. This will eventually help the
videoconferencing solution to securely connect with your network. It is also
important that you use a robust network firewall which can filter and keep an
eye on the unwanted traffic. In case the
videoconferencing solution used by your organization does not require a
password for connecting then it is important that you disable it immediately.
You will need to make it really difficult for the hackers to gain access to
your network and this can be achieved when you carry out network audits from
time to time. Regular firewall and network updates are a must if you want to
keep eavesdroppers at bay and make optimum use of your videoconferencing solution.
About
the author
Michelle Patterson is excited
with the new technologies that are threatening to change the way we stay in
touch and communicate, particular in business. She works with companies that
are introducing these technologies to make understanding them easy for regular
people.
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