10 Tips in Maintaining Privacy During Online Meetings

Since the coronavirus pandemic, companies have conducted online meetings. Video calls and online conferences have become part of our routine. Work isn’t something we’re used to anymore. With the proliferation of numerous coronavirus-related phishing schemes, it’s pretty hard for the average office worker to spot the legit or the fake news.

Security on all online interactions

Often times, security is the last thing on our minds. For the most part, we do not mind of the security measure; we just assume that one meetings and interactions are secure.

Access codes can help secure the meeting. Of course, you would not want to randomly joining your meeting. Imagine, if your team is talking about sensitive information, then, somebody from another department suddenly joins the meeting.

Sadly, if you do not restrict meetings with passwords or if you do not set them up properly, other employees, random people, or even online trolls can interrupt such private and important meeting. Thus, it is extremely crucial for you to implement basic safety measures to help secure the privacy of the ones involved in the meeting.

If implementation of such security are strictly followed, it lead to possible data breaches in the future. This could be a costly consequence for the company. So, what are the basic things you should do?

The tips to follow:

The tools to use in meetings are really dependent on your preference. I have discussed pro-privacy tools in a separate post.

Anyway, without considering the platforms you will use for your online meetings, there a number of things that you should follow to make sure that the online meeting is secure:

• Set rules for conducting a virtual meeting and everyone involved should follow the given instructions.
• Provide unique access codes; no two meeting should have the same passwords especially if you will discuss sensitive information. For a more secure meeting, set a unique identifier code among the attendants.
• Speaking of passwords, make sure that passwords are alphanumeric; it shouldn’t be predictable. Avoid common words like,  “password”, “meeting1”, “conference02”, “1234pass”, and so on.
• If you can, check who the participants are. Meeting attendees should identify themselves. Boot unidentified participants out of the meeting.
• When you are having a video call, limit the participants who have screen-share capabilities.  Remind everyone to avoid carelessly sharing information.
• If unused, do not allow file sharing, screen sharing, or anything like it.

Additional steps to follow:

• Use only company-approved tools; if you are invited to join online meetings, do not share pins or passwords to anyone.
• Oversee the meeting attendees and all times. Restrict access if all the participants are in.
• The department heads or the host should only be the one screen sharing. Average participants should just listen and respond when asked.
• Lastly, meetings should ONLY be on company-issued devices. Avoid using personal computers or mobile phones.

Online meetings are NEW to some people

For some people, virtual meetings are uncharted territory. If you are one of them, please know policies of your company and strictly follow them. Omnipotech is here to help you if you need more security tips for your company. Contact Omnipotech Support Center and talk to an IT professional about cybersecurity.