It’s not hard to think of how industries have been changed by the pandemic, including the way we work and collaborate. Network security is a hot topic and the conversations are typically around insecure home networks and the outdated technology — and unpatched software —that employees use to log into their daily Teams meetings.
Although encrypting data generated during a collaboration session is obviously crucial, there are many other features designed to protect information and privacy that any modern collaboration solution must have. These fall into two categories: in-session controls and admin-level controls. Let’s take a look at both.
In-session controls primarily safeguard access to a session, keeping unauthorized participants out or letting guests in:
- PIN access
The requirement of entering a PIN to connect to a meeting helps prevent unauthorized access. This PIN is typically configured by IT Admin and should change at regular intervals to provide greater protection.
- Protected Guest Access
Just as important as keeping unauthorized people out is allowing guests in. Any guest access feature, however, should ensure that guests can participate more securely without accessing an organization’s network.
- Participant list view and participant expulsion
When it comes to detecting threats, the more eyes the better. A list of session participants should be available to everyone in the session. If the session is not moderated, anyone can disconnect any other participant, denying them further access to the session (whereas in moderated sessions, only the moderator can disconnect a participant).
- Meeting lock
The ability to lock a meeting prevents new users from joining. As with the participant expulsion feature, if the session is not moderated, any participant can lock a session, in moderated sessions, only the moderator can lock the session.
Admin-level controls
As the name suggests, these are those security features that only IT administrators have access to. Such controls include:
- Role-based security
Based on their role managing the software, IT administrators can be assigned different permission levels.
- Preassigned moderator
The session can only be managed by a moderator who has been assigned those permissions by IT. In strict mode, participants cannot present without the moderator’s permission. This is a feature especially useful in K-12 education.
- PIN rotation frequency
Like passwords, PINs are more secure if changed periodically. A modern collaboration solution will autogenerate a new random PIN at default intervals or at intervals specified by IT administrators.
- Keystroke lockout
The keystroke lockout feature allows IT administrators to disable certain keys or combinations of keys that could be used to by hackers to gain access to a computer
The Intel Unite® solution
The Intel Unite solution is an easy-to-use, flexible collaboration solution that, along with end-to-end encryption, incorporates all these protections and more. It is flexible, easy-to-use way to deliver a more secure, manageable, high-quality collaboration experience.
To find out more about the Intel Unite solution click here.
