Best Virtual Event Security Practices For 2024

The increasing popularity of virtual events calls for strict virtual event security measures. There is much information at risk- for both the organizers and the participants from the beginning. Attackers who want to invade your data system will monitor your movements to pick a moment of vulnerability.

That’s why it’s crucial to understand the best practices of virtual event security and employ them in your event to ensure the least unwanted security interference.

We’ve prepared a list of the best virtual event security practices to help you keep yourself and your attendees safe from start to finish.

A. Why does virtual event security matter?

According to Forbes, there has been a 1000% increase in virtual and hybrid events since the COVID-19 pandemic. As virtual events operate on sensitive user data, they are all the more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. That is why virtual event security is crucial to safeguarding the data integrity of the organizers and the attendees.

Here are some more reasons:

1. Protecting sensitive data:

A lot of sensitive information is shared in a virtual event, such as personal data, financial information, or proprietary company secrets. Virtual event security ensures the confidentiality of the data remains intact at all times without any unauthorized access or data breaches.

2. Maintaining legal compliance

While hosting a virtual event, organizers are subject to various legal and regulatory requirements regarding data protection and privacy. The extent of legal compliance will depend on the nature of the virtual event and the type of information shared. Without adequate virtual event security, the organizers may face legal consequences, including fines, penalties, and lawsuits.

3. Upholding attendee trust

Participants who sign up for your virtual event expect a safe and secure environment. If the security is compromised under any circumstances, there is a potential breach of trust, which may lead to a negative reputation. This can also significantly impact future attendance and participation.

4. Preserving brand reputation

Security threats or malware infections can disrupt the virtual event, causing major inconvenience for attendees. This can negatively color the brand reputation it has built over many years. This can also lead to a loss of credibility and potential harm to future business. That is why it is of utmost importance for organizers to invest in virtual event security, ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted experience for all participants.

5. Preventing Disruption and Downtime

Through a standard virtual event security practice, organizers can minimize the risk of disruptions to ensure a smooth and uninterrupted experience for all participants. Any disruption or security risk could impact the financial standing of the organization and its bottom line.

B. Potential threats at a virtual event

With good virtual event security practices, organizations can reduce the risk of security threats to ensure a safe and secure experience for all participants.

Here are some potential threats to watch out for:

1. Unauthorized access

This is a major threat that occurs when individuals gain access to the virtual event platform without proper authorization. Attackers use techniques like brute force attacks to guess passwords or exploit vulnerabilities in the platform’s authentication system.

Mitigation:

• Strong password policies
• Multi-factor authentication
• Regular audit of user access to detect any unauthorized activity

2. Data breaches

Any unauthorized access or theft of sensitive data shared during the event can lead to data breaches. This could be any information, including attendees' personal data, company trade secrets, or financial information.

Mitigation:

• End-to-end encryption
• Strict access control
• Limit the amount of sensitive information shared during the event

3. Eavesdropping

Eavesdropping occurs when attackers disrupt communication channels to gather sensitive information exchanged during the virtual event. This is done by exploiting vulnerabilities in the platform’s encryption protocols.

Mitigation:

• Secure communication protocols such as Transport Layer Security (TLS)
• Employ encryption techniques to protect sensitive information from interception  

4. Malware and phishing attacks

Malware and phishing attacks happen through the distribution of links or attachments shared during the virtual event. These attacks can compromise attendee devices or the theft of sensitive information.

Mitigation:

• Educate attendees about the risks of clicking on suspicious links or downloading files from untrusted sources
• Use email authentication protocols such as SPF. DKIM and DMARC to prevent email spoofing
• Verify the legitimacy of event-related communication

5. Impersonation

This happens when attackers present as event organizers or speakers to deceive attendees into divulging sensitive information or downloading malware-infected files.

Mitigation:

• Verify the identity of all event attendees
• Use secure communication channels for official announcements and updates
• Educate attendees about how to identify and report suspicious activity

C. Ways to improve virtual event security

Here’s a comprehensive list of techniques to improve virtual event security. 

1. Maintain registration security standards

A standard registration security protocol could help you identify red flags in the registration process and securely complete the payment process. For example, using an event management system like Ticket Generator could help you:

• Streamline the registration process and verify all sensitive attendee information
• Identify any suspicious activity, such as an individual purchasing a large number of tickets in the hope of either selling them at a higher price or causing disruptions.
• Secure payment and authentication
• Generate a unique access code, minimizing the risk of unauthorized event access

2. Regulate event access

By regulating event access, you provide an access link only to the relevant individuals. One of the effective ways is to generate one-time links to your virtual events so that they cannot be forwarded to others.

But this depends on the type of virtual event you’re running. Most of the time, the goal of a virtual event is to get as many people to attend as possible. So, many resort to putting the link on social media or through other external channels such as email, which can lead to potential security breaches.

To keep it safe, try eliminating as many access points as possible to give you more control over the event and prevent any virtual event security issues.

3. Limit the access to personal data

The most common cause for data breaches lies within your organization. One of the best ways to mitigate this is to be aware of who on your team has access to any data. Monitor and limit how many people can access this information, as it will ensure your data is protected and less vulnerable to attacks. This could also help identify the culprit easily in case any data is stolen or compromised. If your organization needs to give multiple team members access to your data, ensure you train them well to recognize phishing attempts and other malware attacks.

4. Market your event directly to your target audience

It’s wise to practice exclusivity when it comes to virtual event security. Consider using targeted advertising technology to promote your event to the relevant audience. Marketing your event online to everyone may attract unwanted attention from attackers or opportunists.

To practice targeted advertising, you can utilize email lists, public relations, and advertising in industry trade publications and direct marketing to the target audience. This will ensure your event reaches the right audience while avoiding predatory entities to your event.

5. Hide video or streaming URL

Virtual events or web conferences hold a ton of information. The organizers often share sensitive information with the attendees in an attempt to bond and teach. This creates the risk of someone getting a hold of your content and sharing it with others.

That is why hiding video or streaming URLs is very important to protect your content from unwanted sharing. This ensures your content doesn’t end up all over the internet without you even knowing. Unprotected content can lead to scandals, bad publicity, and other cybersecurity-related problems.

6. Monitor your audience and remove unwanted guests

Have one or two monitors during your virtual event to actively monitor your event’s cybersecurity. Doing this will help you quickly identify unknown vulnerabilities to ensure your guests and organization are always protected.

This also helps to supervise and remove unwanted or unruly guests and keep everyone’s behavior in check. You can eject them immediately to prevent as much damage as possible. Ensure the unwanted guest cannot re-enter the meeting to cause more trouble. 

Here are some ways to identify suspicious guests on Zoom - one of the leading virtual event streaming platforms:

• Watch out for anyone who has registered with a generic ID or email address such as @gmail or @yahoo, as these are popular with hackers
• If you find someone who is disrupting the meeting, kick them out under the ‘Participants’ tab
• Do not accept any unregistered attendees once the event begins

7. Educate attendees about virtual event security

Before joining the event, participants must know the best security practices. Tell them about these security measures:

• Use private WiFi while logging into the event, as public wifi is not secure, and hackers can have more access points
• Keep antivirus software and firewalls up-to-date on their devices
• Do not accept any unsolicited chat requests during the event. They must not give any sensitive company information to other attendees.
• Don’t share your email addresses with other attendees with a suspicious profile
• Avoid sharing the screen with other attendees or anyone during the event

8. Check the streaming settings and turn on the most secure options

Ensure you have the safest possible settings enabled on the streaming platform. Check all security settings before the event to turn on safety options. You can:

• Restrict attendees from renaming or unmuting themselves
• Disable chats between participants that cannot be moderated
• Prevent non-authenticated users from joining the virtual event

9. Appoint a dedicated data security team

Although many events have a tech team that looks into security, having a dedicated team for data security in events has additional advantages. 

They can help you to: 

• Identify and prevent malicious data threats
• Monitor access control to block unauthorized attendees
• Deal with unsecured device connections and wireless networks
• Present secure network solutions

10. Turn off screen sharing for your attendees

Even if you undertake all security measures to keep non-registered attendees out of the event, you could still face the problem of inappropriate screen sharing. The best way to do this is to turn off the sharing feature for everyone except yourself and your co-host. This will avoid any uncomfortable situation if anyone shares their screen with inappropriate material.

C. How can attendees ensure their virtual event security?

Organizers can afford to pull out a dedicated data-security team, but what about the attendees or participants? They are also at the risk of losing valuable data and information.

Here are some of the safe practices that attendees must adhere to ensure virtual event security:

• Verify the source of all email addresses, especially the source domain's authenticity.
• Never click on any embedded links or documents during the virtual event
• Verify the URL destination of any shortened or tiny URLs displayed during the event or in follow-up emails
• Don’t provide your corporate credentials to join a third-party virtual event. If you need a password for entry, make sure it’s unique and not reused or shared
• Never provide additional information outside your name and company while joining a virtual event. All this information should have been collected during the registration process
• Ensure your device is up-to-date with all protection systems to scan for security vulnerabilities before joining a virtual event

D. Ensure virtual event security with Ticket Generator

Virtual event security is important to secure organizers’ and attendees’ information and content and to keep an organization’s brand reputation intact. Any security breach can lead to a huge downgrade in brand image and reputation.

The tips and best practices we shared today will uphold your virtual event security. You have to begin with a safe and secure registration process. 

With the help of Ticket Generator, an all-in-one event management solution, you can collect and store all the sensitive information in the most secure way possible.

To know more, get started now!