The Weakest Security Point in Hosted Web Conferencing
ServicesWeb
conferencing is an Internet-based application. For any Internet
application, two types of security measures
work together to ensure adequate security:
- Transmission security - protecting data from wire-tapping
during the data transmission
- Access security - protecting applications from unauthorized
access.
For web conferencing applications, transmission security
is
easily maintained by using the popular SSL encryption together with each
vendor's proprietary encryption. RHUB's TurboMeeting system uses both SSL and proprietary
encryption. The transmission of user and meeting passwords
and meeting IDs over the Internet is always SSL-encrypted.
The weakest security point in web conferencing is access
security. Every web conferencing system today uses meeting IDs
and/or passwords as simple access security measures to protect
web meetings from unwanted attendance. However, the problem is that meeting
IDs and passwords are usually emailed to attendees before scheduled
meetings start. This process can easily compromise access
security. Your computer screen may be captured within seconds once a hacker intercepts or guesses your meeting ID
or password. Once you realize you have been hacked, it is too late to close your meeting.
Deploy RHUB Web Conferencing Appliances For The Security
You Need
The best way to protect against security breaches described above
is to use an on-premise solution where your firewall to
protects your meetings. RHUB web conferencing appliances are the
easiest and most affordable solution for your most sensitive security needs.
The figures below show three typical ways in which to deploy RHUB web
conferencing appliances:
- Behind-firewall for internal meetings only
- DMZ for both internal and external meetings
- Outside firewall for external meetings only
(a) Behind Firewall Deployment
(b) DMZ Deployment
(c) Outside Firewall Deployment
Both behind-firewall and DMZ deployment are
strong security measures. Today DMZ is available for almost every router
used, including home routers. DMZ deployment provides great
flexibility. It allows both internal (behind firewall) and
external (outside firewall) attendees to join a meeting. When you
start a meeting, you simply check an option to tell the system
that this meeting is for internal attendees only (see the Figure
below). The RHUB web
conferencing appliance will reject any attendees who come from
outside your firewall.
You can determine the level of security of a meeting The outside-firewall deployment
(c) is equivalent to hosted
services. It does not add anything to access security but
weakens it.
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