Secure digital meetings – how secure is your meeting?
Secure digital meetings are becoming increasingly important when sensitive and confidential information is handled digitally. At the same time, digital meetings are now a natural part of the workday – we click on a link, connect with a camera and microphone and start talking. But when the meeting contains sensitive or confidential information, the security issue needs to go beyond the meeting being password-protected or the communication being encrypted.
Who actually participates? How are participants identified? What information is created during the meeting – and what happens to it when the meeting is over?
Here are some of the questions worth asking when a digital meeting requires a higher level of control.
1. Do you know who is actually participating?
In a typical digital meeting, it's often easy to join. A link is sent out and the participant clicks in.
It's convenient – but in certain types of meetings, the organization also needs to be able to ensure who is actually on the other side of the screen.
This may, for example, involve meetings where personal data, legal issues, internal decisions or other sensitive information are discussed.
Then a regular meeting link may be insufficient.
Depending on the business's requirements, participants can instead be identified through, for example , a PIN code, BankID, the organization's own identity provider (IdP) or SSO .
Not all meetings require the same level of identification. The important thing is that the organization can choose a level that corresponds to the information to be handled.
2. How is communication protected?
Encryption is a central part of secure digital communication.
But the question should not only be:
Is the meeting encrypted?
It is at least as important to understand how information is handled throughout the meeting and which systems are involved.
This is especially true for organizations where participants connect from different environments – for example, via browsers, computers, mobile devices or professional video conference rooms.
Security needs to work throughout the entire chain.
3. What information is created during the meeting?
A digital meeting consists of more than images and sound.
During the meeting, participants can, for example, use chat, share information, or create a recording. At the same time, technical information and metadata can be generated in connection with the meeting.
This means that security work should not just be about what is said in front of the camera.
The organization also needs to understand what information is created around the meeting itself and how it is managed.
4. What happens when the meeting ends?
This is a question that is easily forgotten.
When participants leave a physical meeting room, the meeting is over. In a digital environment, however, information may remain.
What's happening with the chat?
Is there any metadata left?
Has the meeting been recorded?
How long is the information stored?
Who can access it afterwards?
For organizations that handle sensitive information , post-meeting monitoring can be at least as important as security during the call itself.
5. Where is the information processed?
The next question is geographical – and legal.
Where is the information from the meeting processed and what jurisdiction applies?
For businesses with high requirements for information security, it can be important to know where the infrastructure is located and what regulations the information is subject to.
It's not about one solution being right for all organizations.
It's about being able to make an informed decision based on the business's requirements and what type of information should be communicated.
6. How are external participants handled?
Many digital meetings do not only take place between people within your own organization.
Customers, patients, consultants, suppliers and partners may need to participate without having an account in the organization's internal system.
Then further questions arise.
How is the person invited?
How is identity verified?
What information does the participant have access to?
A secure meeting environment therefore needs to be able to combine control with easy accessibility for external participants.
Secure digital meetings don't have to be complicated
Higher security should not have to mean a worse user experience.
The participant should still be able to understand how to connect and conduct the meeting without unnecessary technical obstacles.
At the same time, the organization should be able to determine the level of security required.
It is the balance between security, control and ease of use that becomes crucial.
Secure Meeting – when the meeting requires more control
Not all digital meetings need the same level of security.
But for meetings where sensitive or mission-critical information is handled, there may be a need for greater control over both participants and information.
It is for these situations that Splitvisions offers Secure Meeting .
Secure Meeting is a video conferencing service for businesses that need a controlled environment for digital communication. The service runs on Swedish cloud infrastructure and the organization can choose different levels of identification, such as its own IdP, BankID or SSO.
Participants can connect directly via their browser without installing a separate application. Secure Meeting can also be integrated with existing video conferencing environments via SIP and H.323 and supports features such as chat, streaming and recording.
This means that the organization can create a safer meeting environment without the user experience needing to become unnecessarily complicated.
Start with the right questions
Assessing the security of a digital meeting doesn't have to start with technical specifications.
Instead, start with the business:
What information should be discussed?
Who will participate?
How do participants need to be identified?
What information is created during the meeting?
What should be left when the meeting ends?
Where may the information be processed?
When the organization can answer these questions, it becomes much easier to determine what level of security a digital meeting actually needs.
Not all meetings need the same protection – but the organization needs to know when a meeting requires more.
Would you like to know more about Secure Meeting?
Secure Meeting is developed for businesses where control, security and ease of use need to work together.
Read more about Secure Meeting: https://www.securemeeting.eu/
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