As Internet video conferencing becomes more popular year after year the challenges of securing the transmissions becomes every more challenging. Internet based video conferencing has made great strides over the last ten years going from reliance upon ISDN to being fully compatible with IP. While it can be argued by many who use video conferencing versus face to face communication that it saves money on travel expenses it is not necessarily safer. Unfortunately every kind of messaging technology is or will be subject to security exploits by those who wish to gain access to private information. Even though it is costlier to have face to face meetings when those meeting must fly across the country it is often safer because conferences can take place behind closed doors and the participants can be fairly certain of who is receiving the information. "Security professionals know that contrary to popular belief, most security violations come from internal rather than external sources, which means that protecting your network environment from outside intruders is simply not enough.
A Polycom VSX 7000 camera used for videoconferenci...
English: System diagram: How vzRoom users communic...
The first HD video conferencing endpoint brought t...Videoconferencing, with an often high profile user base and confidential meeting content, represents a new area of concern for IT /network managers." (Weinstein, 2006).
The Need for Network and Systems SecurityTo help organizations protect sensitive data there must be enforceable security policies in place that everyone is aware of and that everyone follows. This does not mean that gobs of money should be spent on security, it just means that basic policies should be in place. "The organizations that enforce the strictest corporate security are often the ones that are the least secure. The more resources an outfit throws at security, generally the less likely it is they are getting any bottom-line value for it." (CIOinsight, 2001). Imagine for a minute a company where security policies are not...