5 Ways You Can Secure Your Web Conference

So, you've started conferencing on the web, but do you know if your meetings are really private? Here are a few tips to help you secure your web conference and ensure the people who attend, are the people you want to be there.

Use room passwords. Many web conferencing rooms can be password protected. Use a password for sensitive meetings if you don't usually use one. If you already use a general password, create a new one for special meetings and change the password from time to time. You can always reset it later.

Like any offline meeting, make sure participants know the conference is private or sensitive in nature. This way, you won't run the risk of a participant sharing details of the conference with the uninvited and that could be a sticky issue.

Try not to send passwords through email. Or at least not in the same email as the other details of the conference such as dates, times, room URLs. Email is still largely insecure and very easily intercepted. If it's a highly sensitive meeting with just a few participants, it might be a better idea to follow up with a phone call or even snail mail if time permits.

For larger groups, you could create a special member's only area on your web site which contains meeting schedules, room logins and other information meeting participants might need. This reduces the problem of lost and buried emails. Some web conference services include a similar service in the package so you might want to ask your service provider.

Encourage use of video. It's easier to impersonate someone if they can hide behind a computer screen. Most web conferencing services have video conferencing built in and only requires an inexpensive web cam.

Make sure you're using a secure web conference service. Most web conferencing services are secure but don't just take “our web conferencing rooms are secure” statements at face value. Ask a few questions like how is it secured? Simple password protection alone is not enough to secure your web conference. Ask if data and audio transmitted through the service is encrypted and transferred using secured transmission from end to end.

As you can gather out of all the suggestions, there are more things you can do than you think. Although a good web conferencing service is an important foundation but software cannot secure your web conferece as well as you can. These simple ideas should help you keep unwanted eyes and ears out of your meeting.