If you’re new to video conferencing, you’ve probably discovered that it’s a great tool for connecting with others and getting work done, especially when you can't meet in person. That said, it's hard to ignore recent stories about meetings getting hacked. And perhaps you’re concerned about it happening to you.

Here’s something to consider: Contrary to popular belief, most “hackers” aren’t terribly sophisticated. The typical hacker, like most criminals, preys on easy targets. That’s good news, because it means that with a few simple steps anyone can prevent hackers and pranksters from spoiling their meeting.

In this article we take a look at steps IT teams and meeting hosts can follow to ensure video conferences are safe and secure.

Tips for Meeting Hosts

In many organizations, IT teams eliminate the guesswork from security by pre-determining settings in your video conferencing software account. If you're unsure about something, it's best to start with these internal experts.

Beyond consulting the experts, you'll want to get familiar with the settings panel in your video conferencing application of choice. Ensure that you are thoughtfully managing the features that IT has made optional, especially as it relates to who can join your meetings and how they are allowed to participate. Different video software applications provide different options for these two areas. We’ll discuss them both generally. Be sure to check your preferred video application to see which options apply to you.

Controlling Who Can Join Your Meeting

In general, video conferencing applications let you as the host decide who can attend your meeting, who can join directly, and who needs to wait in a “virtual waiting room” or “lobby” before they can join.

The least control is to allow anyone with a link to join without restriction. The strictest control is to only allow invited guests to join and to further require the host to approve them to enter. You can achieve the right level of control for your meeting through options such as:

• Using randomly generated meeting IDs for each meeting you host, rather than your personal meeting room or ID

• Providing a "lobby" or “waiting room” for attendees until the host has joined the meeting or admitted them in

• Setting a password to enter the meeting

• Restricting your meeting to invitees only (the default setting in some video applications)

• Locking your meeting once it’s begun so no one else can enter

As the meeting host, it's also good practice to monitor the participant list, ask participants to self-identify, – and remove those you don’t recognize. These extra precautions are especially important for large or public meetings.

Moderating Your Meeting

In addition to managing who can attend your meeting, you will also want to consider:

• Who is and isn’t allowed to share content

• Who is able to speak or interrupt

• Who controls the mute function

• Who can initiate a meeting recording and who can access the recording afterward

These are important options to prevent your meeting from being hijacked by a prankster.

In smaller or collaborative meetings, it usually makes sense to allow everyone to speak and share content. In larger meetings, however, you'll often want to restrict these permissions to only the people who are presenting. In this situation, the chat feature available in most video conferencing applications enables non-presenting participants to engage. You may also consider options such as admitting attendees in mute mode and turning off the chat feature.

General Advice for all Meeting Hosts and Participants

In addition to the above recommendations, hosts and participants should follow these best-practices when running or attending video meetings.

• Use a secure connection. Whenever possible, avoid unsecured networks when connecting to business-related video conferences. Even home Wi-Fi can be targeted by hackers. Connecting through your company’s virtual private network, or setting up your own VPN, can help ensure security.  

• Keep software up to date. This is such a basic recommendation, and yet it’s surprising how many people fail to update software on their laptops and phones or keep their video conferencing software up to date. (See note above about hackers preying on easy targets!)