EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Online video conferencing tools have allowed at-home employees to continue working and stay productive during the coronavirus crisis.  Shareholder meetings, educational workshops, K-12 classroom instruction, and cocktail parties are taking place across video conferencing platforms.

To the dismay of people around the globe, cyber criminals have taken to deliberately interrupt conference calls for the purpose of showing explicit or violent content. The problem has reached a tipping point, inviting tremendous media coverage, and prompting the FBI to issue a warning.

Here’s how you can avoid unwanted cyber intrusions during video conferences:

• Avoid posting invites on social media. Links on social media are generally accessible to anyone. If a person is looking to disrupt a meeting, he or she may scout for these publically accessible invites.
• Don’t use your personal meeting ID. Although it’s easy to get into the habit of copying and pasting links to your personal meeting room for every meeting, a bad actor who gets ahold of that link will suddenly be able to drop into every meeting of yours. To avoid this upset, generate unique IDs for each meeting.
• Make passwords mandatory. When possible, generate passwords for meetings, and send the password to your group (professional, academic, or otherwise) as part of the meeting invite. Depending on the video conferencing service in use, it may also be possible for you to change the settings so that passwords are automatically required for every meeting.

For more on how to keep your video conferences secure, visit Forbes.