Security Tips for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Oct. 1 marks the start of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. This year, with many of us working remotely, we wanted to provide information on how you can stay secure online - no matter where you are.

We’ve collected some best practices for people working from home to help keep up good online security and avoid preventable breaches.

Here are a few tips to help you keep your device secure and prevent unauthorized access: 

• Download anti-virus software - By downloading anti-virus software, you can ensure that your device remains secure and harmful viruses like trojan horses don’t wreak havoc on your system. 
• Update software patches - If your device requires an update or patch, downloading it will ensure that your software is up-to-date and any known vulnerabilities in the software have been addressed. 
• Don’t lend your work device to friends or family - While it may seem harmless to let a friend or family member use your device, they may not be aware of security threats and may expose your device to malicious software. 
• Secure your laptop when you aren’t using it - Locking your device or putting it away when you aren’t using it ensures that no one can access your device and protects the sensitive information that is stored on it. 

Although your physical device may be safe, hackers and unauthorized parties can still access the data on your device through various cyberattacks. Here are a few tips to protect your data: 

• Two-factor authentication - We recently enhanced our two-factor authentication for the Zoom desktop client and mobile app. Turning on two-factor authentication for your digital accounts provides another layer of security by requiring additional identifying information during log-ins.
• Use a VPN - Using VPN encrypts your data, which makes it unreadable to any hackers or unauthorized parties and ensures that your data doesn’t end up in the wrong hands. 
• Talk to your IT department - Your position may require handling very sensitive or confidential information, so make sure to contact your IT department to make sure you are following all recommended security measures to keep your data secure. 
• Remain vigilant - Phishing attacks are some of the most common cyber attacks, and you can avoid them by scanning attachments sent over email using antivirus software, checking that emails are coming from known accounts, and confirming requests you receive over email using other communication channels. 
• Be aware of the network - It is easy to jump on a public wifi network without knowing, but it could be compromised and you could be at risk. When in doubt, reach out to your provider or your IT/security team at your company. 

Zoom provides a number of features to help you keep your meetings secure and confidential no matter where you are working. You can find a number of these features in your account settings to help secure your meetings before they even begin.

For starters, we always recommend enabling passcodes for your meetings, so only those with the passcode they received in the meeting invite can join. You should also disable Join Before Host, so the meeting won’t start without the host present. Additionally, never share your meeting ID or passcode on social media or other online platforms.

And here a few in-meeting security features you can find under the Security Icon to help you host secure meetings: 

• Use Waiting Rooms - You can enable a virtual staging area that prevents people from joining a meeting until the host is ready. Meeting hosts can then admit people in the Waiting Room individually or all at once.
• Lock your meetings - After all of your participants have joined your meeting, use the Lock Meeting feature to prevent any other participants from joining the meeting. 
• Control chat and screen sharing - Under the “Allow Participants to:” section, you can enable or disable participants’ ability to use the chat function and share their screens. 
• Remove participants - If you have unauthorized users joining your meeting, you can use the Remove Participant feature, which will remove the user from the meeting and prevents them from re-joining the meeting.

To learn more about how Zoom provides secure, reliable meetings for remote teams, sign up for a 1-on-1 demo with a Zoom specialist today!