Data security is a vital part of any business plan, but things have only gotten more difficult with time. Thanks to the Covid-19 epidemic, more people than ever are working and doing business from home. This, of course, has made for a hacking bonanza, as bad actors cash in on these changes. Only when the economy has adjusted to this new reality will things return to normal. In order to do our part in helping that effort, we present a few quick tips on securing your data on video conferencing platforms.
Use A Company VPN
A VPN (also called a virtual private network) uses encryption to create a private access “tunnel.” By utilizing a complete wall of encrypted data, these service providers make it virtually impossible for anyone to crack through the network by conventional means. There are means by which they can get around a VPN, but it is almost impossible to get through its protections.
Encryption works by jumbling up your data, making it impossible for an intruder to read the contents. A hacker could get access to the data (in theory), but it won’t matter because it will just consist of random 1’s and 0’s. Most VPN services are provided by third-party companies, and most of them offer special plans for businesses. Of course, you need to make sure that you do your homework thoroughly before choosing a particular service.
Have Clear And Concise Policies
In many cases, security issues are simply the result of someone failing to follow the rules. For those who are not educated about cybersecurity, it is tempting to overlook some of those smaller rules, thinking them to be unimportant. That’s why you need to have a clear set of policies, and you need to make sure that everyone understands them precisely.
You might start by making a simple list of the most important security rules. This would include things like not storing your password on the computer (unless it’s inside a well-encrypted file container) and not allowing anyone other than yourself to access the company network for any reason. A lot of this is common sense, but it helps a lot to codify things. If nothing else, it removes any excuse that people might have for not following the rules.
Educate Your Employees
A lot of cybersecurity problems also come down to issues of education. The average person is pretty easy to hack because the average person has little to no knowledge of how these things work. In this regard, a short online seminar can be of great help. You might even want to hire an outside IT instructor to lead such a seminar, preferably someone with a lot of experience in the field.
For instance, you want to make sure that your employees know about the dangers of social media openness. You should never post conference links on a social media account, for instance. It might be an easy way to invite everyone, but it’s also a good way to end up with uninvited (and unwelcome) guests.
Use Network Monitoring To Your Advantage
There are many common-sense measures that people can take to make themselves more secure. A lot of these boil down to simple precautions, but there is still one big problem: What happens if you are targeted by a very skillful attacker? These little measures like VPNs and long passwords will certainly protect you from the average threat, but there is only one way to deal with the more advanced threats. Of course, we are talking about network monitoring.
Programs like Nmap and Wireshark (both of which are free) can be used to monitor every connection to the network in real time. Thus, if some unauthorized person gains access to the network, they can immediately be spotted. The only problem with this kind of software, of course, is the fact that you need a qualified technician for it to be used correctly. The person who is doing the monitoring must be able to understand and interpret everything that the program shows them.
To that end, you should dedicate a person to the task of network monitoring. This could be one of your in-house IT people, or someone hired from an outside company. Either way, make sure that this person has no other tasks which might distract them from their vigilance.
Conclusion
Video conferencing is only going to become a bigger business, so don’t think that this issue will go away when the pandemic ends. In fact, the economy was already moving in this direction anyway. As much as 25 % of the U.S. workforce was already doing their thing from home. This is just a short overview of security concepts that should help you to secure your video conferences properly, and we hope that you will continue your research. If we have helped you to be a little bit better prepared, please show your gratitude by filling out the contact form below.