Businesses have become increasingly dependent on Zoom and Microsoft Teams in the wake of the pandemic. They need software that enables them to communicate effectively with their colleagues, often over long distances.
The tools themselves are spectacular. Microsoft Teams allows multiple colleagues to communicate with each other in real-time, without having to resort to clunky email solutions. It also integrates with many other business-related applications.
Zoom is essential for meetings, allowing multiple people to share a single team. Entire businesses can meet online in a single chatroom.
Unfortunately, these services are at risk from hackers. Cybercriminals looking to cause disruption will often target business’s communication channels. Sometimes, they simply want to shut them down, but other times, they may just sit, listen and collect facts that they can later use against you.
There are also some more overt forms of disruption. “Zoombombing” – the practice of crashing public meetings with obscenities – became all too common at the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns, with the CEO of the company later offering an apology for the poor security performance of the app.
Teams isn’t perfect either. Hackers often exploit zero-day vulnerabilities, collecting company information before Microsoft has time to correct the problem.
As a company, therefore, your goal is to make sure that your Zoom calls and Teams chats are safe. But how? Let’s take a look.
Keep Your Software Up To Date
The first way to protect yourself against Zoomboming or other hacking threats is to keep your communication apps and services updated.
If you are using cloud-based services, such as Teams, you probably don’t need to do anything. Microsoft will simply perform the update in the background and then ask you to agree to a new set of terms and conditions. However, if you are using other apps, you may need to give them permission to update, particularly if software sits on employees’ home computers.
In some cases, you may actually need to educate the need for employees to update their software. Making it a part of company policy can help enhance compliance and keep you safe.
Use A Managed IT Service Provider
Managed IT services are ultimately your best defense against hacking on Zoom and Microsoft Teams. But why? It is because, unlike traditional anti-virus software or firewalls, they continually monitor your systems for threats and use multiple resources to eliminate them. For instance, communicating with your team in the virtual cloud lets you create a better barrier between your conversations and the rest of the internet, making interruptions less likely.
Instruct Employees To Ignore Zoom Links
Zoom links are a popular method hackers use to obtain sensitive information from your employees. They will often send a link to join a call in an email and then use that to attempt to gain access credentials.
To counteract this, make it a policy never to send out Zoom links to colleagues. Furthermore, instruct them to ignore and delete any emails that contain links that they receive.