Data Protection Day: Secure Video Conferencing
Data Protection Day: Secure Video Conferencing
The 28th January, marks many notable events not least because it’s the day Edward VI became king (1547); the day Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was first published in the UK (1813); and the anniversary of LEGO patenting the design of its bricks (1958). On top of all that, it’s also Data Protection Day – an international day to empower people and businesses to respect and understand privacy.
With the surge in video meetings during the pandemic, forcing millions of people to work, learn and socialise remotely, and the continued prevalence of hybrid working, the Convention of Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (also known as Convention 108) is still as relevant as when it was launched.
At its peak, Zoom, for example, counted more than 300 million daily participants in virtual meetings. Microsoft also experienced a sizeable increase in users, from 32 million daily active users of Microsoft Team at the beginning of the pandemic to 145 million at its peak.
In 2017, The Economist asserted that “the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.” Meanwhile in a recent report, Gartner said that cyber attacks are up 3,900%, and in 2021 cybercrime reportedly cost US organisations $6.9 billion.
We live in a time when data and data protection are big business.
Data Protection and Video Conferencing
Some of our most confidential data is generated during our many video conferences. It’s where information is shared, decisions are made, and confidential happenings often occur between parties. When it comes to secure video conferencing (VC) consideration must be given to:
- How data gets from ‘A to B’.
- Where the data is stored.
- How much control you have over your own VC data.
The first thing to consider is that a video call is always in transit, so you need to ensure that both the ‘media data’ (the information shared on the call), and the process of transporting the media are encrypted.
Secondly, you need to know where data is stored. Data Sovereignty dictates that where video conferencing is physically located determines what national laws and regulations it is bound by. If data is stored outside your country, this potentially gives another country access to your information. Many European countries must follow GDPR, which has some of the strongest privacy and data protection regulations of any policies. This makes European-based video conferencing vendors a good option for multinationals that have concerns for privacy and security of their video conferencing data.
Using a self-hosted video conferencing solution is the best way to maintain control of your own data, as it ensures that the data stays in your own data centres. A private cloud solution is a good option if you don’t have the internal resources to maintain a video conferencing platform in-house, but you still want to be in control of your data.
Secure Video Meetings
We can’t talk about data security and video conferencing without mentioning Pexip. Pexip is the trusted provider of secure video meetings for governments, military organisations, and judicial systems around the world.
Make sure that your video meetings are secure now. Not after a hack has happened.
In shared cloud solutions you don’t know where your data goes but, with Pexip, their technology is built with security at its core. Pexip allows you to maintain absolute control of the routing and storage of your data, including call detail records and meeting patterns.
Pexip also allows you to restrict access based on role, location, network or PIN. You can have different access levels based on security clearance or rank. With the policy engine you can enable different access rules based on custom criteria.
Stay in control of your meeting data
The Pexip solution works in zero trust and air-gapped environments, enables authentication tools and workflows, and puts organisations in control of all meeting data, including call records.
To provide information security in areas that encryption cannot address, Pexip has been developed from the ground up, within the constraints of a Defence-in-Depth cybersecurity architecture. Their cyber architecture focuses on applying a holistic approach to security and is designed to address all aspects of the threat model, including application, network, and operational security elements.
So, whether you’re re-reading Pride and Prejudice or kicking off a new LEGO build in honour of 28th January, take some time to also recognise Data Protection Day. It’s never too late to review your company’s privacy and security solutions and evaluate their effectiveness when it comes to protecting your confidential corporate data.
To find out more about secure solutions, or Pexip, please contact us via email sales@nuvias-uc.com or call us on 01635225000.
Resources
https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/28-january-data-protection-day
https://www.gartner.com/en/topics/cybersecurity
https://www.pexip.com/products/secure-meetings/secure-collaboration
https://www.pexip.com/products/secure-meetings
https://www.pexip.com/whitepaper/optimizing-your-zero-trust-security
This blog is supported by Pexip.
- English
lmitchell
