To call the opening weeks of the pandemic a nightmare for American businesses is a gross understatement. One of the biggest challenges was a rapid and effective shift from in-person to remote work. Sales at Zoom, Skype, and other video conferencing platforms surged as employers scrambled to keep things moving.
Maybe you’re one of those business owners or managers who quickly purchased an enterprise account for your employees. And several months later, not only are your staff meetings, and sales calls all online, but your employees are all now trying to outdo each other with the most eye-catching filters and virtual backgrounds.
Now that you’re starting to settle into this remote world, you should evaluate the cybersecurity risks your video conferencing system and processes may pose. Perhaps you’ve seen headlines about Zoom bombing or even fallen victim to it. But the business risk associated with video conferencing is not limited to lost time from disruptive trolls. If you’re sharing sensitive financial or confidential information with other employees or clients across these platforms, you need to know how to safeguard the data. Otherwise, if compromised, your losses could be costly.
It’s yet another potential headache in the era of COVID-19.
But it’s one you may avoid if you take the following steps to mitigate risk.
Assess the security of your system
Start by assessing the platform you currently use. Understand that hackers and criminals will find new vulnerabilities over time. This isn’t a one and done situation. Keep your IT staff up-to-date with application improvements to patch those vulnerabilities as they are discovered.
Also, understand that your business’ video conferencing system is not the only third-party platform you use. It includes everything your employees use to join your online meetings, from their webcams to their microphones. Even separate wireless devices, such as smart speakers, can be compromised and used to collect sensitive information.
Make sure your IT department fortifies company-owned equipment with the latest security measures, and regularly updates those security applications. Also, teach your employees to keep their computing equipment secure at all times.
Evaluate your operations
Review your written policies to determine if they follow best practices for keeping online meetings as secure as possible. Do this periodically — at least once every six months — to keep pace with new developments in IT security.
Also, make sure your employees are following company policies. Are your staff exchanging financial or other sensitive information via video conference, when they should be directing customers to a payment gateway? Are they inadvertently sharing confidential information when they are screen-sharing documents during a public presentation? You may need to provide additional training to mitigate the risk of sensitive data being stolen during online meetings and sales calls.
Evaluate your operations
Review your written policies to determine if they follow best practices for keeping online meetings as secure as possible. Do this periodically — at least once every six months — to keep pace with new developments in IT security.
Also, make sure your employees are following company policies. Are your staff exchanging financial or other sensitive information via video conference, when they should be directing customers to a payment gateway? Are they inadvertently sharing confidential information when they are screen-sharing documents during a public presentation? You may need to provide additional training to mitigate the risk of sensitive data being stolen during online meetings and sales calls.
Make sure you're covered
If you do discuss financial or sensitive information via video conference, have your counsel ensure that you’re using the proper disclaimers to minimize liability. If your data is stolen, make sure you’re covered from potential damages.
A comprehensive cyber liability insurance policy is a must in this brave new world of remote work. For more information about how you can be covered in the event of data loss, contact a Snyder Insurance representative today.
