Conference calls have done great things to improve corporate communications, productivity and expenses, but what about security? Many customers are concerned that since you have an open conference call you are open to having an unwanted participant join the call. Or maybe you had to let an employee go and you need to make sure they don’t enter your regular conference call that they have the participant information for. Or maybe you are concerned about corporate spying. Whatever your concern, I would like to address the different areas of conference call security and suggest ways to make sure your conference calls are secure.
First of all, the conference call equipment itself needs to be secure. Zip Conferencing has taken steps to make sure that the network connected to our conference call equipment is dedicated to us and directly connected to our conference call equipment. The equipment and network are located in state of the art data warehouses with top of the line security in place to prevent any tampering at the conference call equipment level. Every conference call is protected by having a unique set of dial in numbers and pass codes that allow access to the conference calls. So, the provider end of the equation has insured that the conference call is as secure as it can possibly be on the back end.
For the user, there are a number of practices and features you can use to make sure your conference call is equally secure on the front end. FIrst, your conference call information security is up to you. Make sure that you do not share the conference call information with anyone other than the intended participants on your conference call. If you have personnel changes you should change your conference call information immediately. With Zip Conferencing this is easily done with your online account manager. If you are concerned about having permanent conference call information you can even do one time scheduled conference calls where the conference call information only works one time and then does not work again.
Once you have made sure that the conference call information is secure and you have joined the conference call, how do you know that the participants you invited are the only ones that can join the call. FIrst, you can put music on hold so no one to speak to each other until the Host joins. When you join the conference call you set the call to do a roll call to verify the participants. Or you can view the call using an online interface to see the participants and their dial in numbers. Once you have established that the participants that are on the conference call are correct, you can lock the conference call to prevent anyone else from joining the call. This is easily accomplished by using the Host Controls from within the conference. This will prevent anyone from dialing into the conference call or even an operator from joining the call.
So, you see, there are a number of ways to insure the security on a conference call. It starts with a good conference calls ervice provider like ZIp Conferencing that has engineered a secure network and provides a full featured conference call service that provides these security options.
For more on conference call security options visit Zip Conferencing’s Knowledgebase http://www.zipconferencing.com/kb/Conference-Call-Host-Controls-31-Activate/Deactivate-Conference-Security-Code_132.html
