Podcasts and webinars can generate a substantial income. Even if you offer the content for free, it’s a powerful way for speakers, trainers, and consultants to build their audience. A larger audience leads to more opportunities to monetize your services.
Most creators offer free content as part of a conversion funnel for their premium masterclasses or services. In exchange for the free information, the registration forms include additional fields. You might ask for the subscriber’s contact details, industry or company, and professional level. There may even be payment details.
Wherever there’s PII (personally identifiable information) or money involved, cyberattackers are on the prowl. As a result, both podcasts and webinars have specific cybersecurity risks.
Podcast and Webinar Platforms
A webinar platform enables live virtual events. It offers real-time features such as live chat, screen sharing, polls, content recording, translation or summarisations, and video conferencing. Popular webinar platforms include Zoom, Demio or Microsoft Teams, commonly used for work meetings.
A podcast platform is used to pre-record and store digital events as managed content. It handles the technical aspects of publishing and distributes the recordings via an RSS feed to podcast directories, such as Spotify.
What Are the Risks of Offering Webinars?
Offering webinars always comes with several risks, including the exposure of personal data collected during registration, potential vulnerabilities in third-party platforms, and an increased likelihood of cyberattacks such as credential stuffing, bot activity, and phishing attempts that mimic webinar invites or login pages.
Saboteurs can use “webinar bombing”. They can disrupt your event and plant offensive content. Another concern is the potential for a sneak attack on participants during live sessions. If you choose a poorly secured platform, attackers may join unnoticed. Once they’re in, they can steal your proprietary content that was meant for a limited, perhaps paying, audience. They could record confidential meetings and hold you to ransom.
Attackers could also snatch personal details, including participants’ logins. And since content creators use webinars to capture leads, the participants’ registration data is at risk.
What Are the Risks of Offering Podcasts?
The risks of offering podcasts are lower because of the nature of podcast technology. Podcasts are generally pre-recorded and played on demand.
The main threat is when the platform is less than meticulous about the security of its cloud storage. Attackers can target recordings, but they will usually go after the subscriber database. The user database holds private information, sometimes including payment information.
Whether you choose a podcast or webinar platform, or use both, the platform must use end-to-end encryption and have strong access controls. The company should be highly cyber-aware and use up-to-date technology to stay ahead of newly discovered platform vulnerabilities. They should also comply with any applicable privacy regulations. For example, if your audience is global, you’ll need to comply with GDPR. If you work in the medical field, the platform should be HIPAA-compliant.
It’s unethical to collect personal data on a platform that you know is not compliant. Remember: if the worst should happen, the cost of personal and business liability legal claims accounts for a significant portion of the costs of a data breach.
Why You Should Prepare for Data Breaches
In February 2024, the U.S. Federal Reserve experienced a “porn-bombing” breach during a virtual Zoom event. Discord faced data breaches that exposed passwords, usernames, billing addresses, IP addresses, and messages exchanged with support agents. The attackers even accessed government-issued ID images on file.
AI has made it far easier for hackers to sneak past everyday defences through phishing attacks. They can trick even experts into revealing their passwords, making data breaches an escalating risk. If hackers can penetrate those large platforms, imagine how much easier it is for them to breach smaller businesses. They don’t have many cybersecurity resources and are easier targets.
- Always keep customer information, meeting details, participant lists, and recordings safe. Store it in secure, encrypted cloud storage and restrict access to the information.
- To distribute content efficiently, companies often rely on programmatic ad serving and other automated marketing tools. While these technologies streamline reach, they also introduce vulnerabilities if not monitored properly.
- Practice basic cyberhygiene. Use a reputable antivirus solution to protect against malicious uploads and file-sharing.
- Consider taking out online fraud insurance. When you’re suddenly plunged into a data breach nightmare, you need expert help. Online fraud insurance companies have experts on hand to help you deal with the immediate effects of an attack. They’ll cover the cost of getting your business back up and running. Also, they may cover claims from your clients arising from identity theft resulting from your data breach.
- Use a VPN to protect your connection from attackers. It adds an extra security layer to the platform’s encryption.
- Many organizations use free educational content as a way to attract prospects and support cyber security lead generation, but offering open access resources can also expose your platform to new security risks.
- Update all software, including the platform software, before you start. Software patches can close newly discovered security loopholes at short notice.
- Limit the information you collect during registration. While you want to know enough about attendees to use that information in your sales funnel, less is more when it comes to data protection.
How to Choose a Secure Platform
You’ll need a platform that prioritizes security but is easy for guests to navigate and use.
- The platforms should pursue a cyber-first strategy. Those who do will offer robust security features and adhere to security best practices.
- The platform must have end-to-end encryption. Encryption ensures that the data you send from your desk (for example, a file) is the same data that arrives on a participant’s screen. It ensures that the data you exchanged during the webinar is free from interception and manipulation.
- Review the platform’s privacy policies. You must understand how your data will be managed and protected. Perhaps more importantly, you must assure potential guests that you will treat their data with respect.
Checklist for Planning Safe Sessions
You can build in security measures each time you set up before a session.
- Clearly define who can join your webinar and set activity restrictions in advance. For example, restrict screen sharing or chat to prevent distractions. Set up user policies to prevent attendees from being classified as anonymous, which can raise privacy concerns.
- Prepare for the unexpected. What could go wrong? How will you handle it if someone gatecrashes your webinar? What would you do if the platform crashes?
- Use unique meeting IDs. You could use your password manager to generate random IDs.
- Enable password access for each webinar. The platform should enforce strong passwords.
- Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). It’s a phishing-resistant add-on to password authentication.
- Record webinars to identify security incidents so you can provide evidence if needed.
- Enable the platform’s end-to-end encryption to protect the data transmitted during the webinar.
- Use the waiting room. It’s a digital lobby where participants wait for the host to let them in. While it acts as a security feature, it also gives your webinar a more professional feel.
- Once all participants have joined, lock the webinar to prevent gatecrashing.
Pro Tips for Webinar Management
Follow these pro tips for proactively managing a successful webinar.
- Practice using moderation features before the webinar starts. Make sure you know how to mute participants or control screen sharing.
- Start the meeting with a short note on ground rules. Inform attendees about the tools they may use, such as screen sharing, chat, and hand-raising. Explain what is or isn’t acceptable behaviour.
- Monitor the attendees. Who’s joining or leaving? If someone seems suspicious, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Remove them.
Using Webinars and Podcasts to Build Trust
Securing your webinars is more than just a technical requirement—it’s also a good strategy for building trust. As virtual events become prominent business tools, security compliance is the key to business success. In addition, by choosing only secure platforms, we can influence the tech industry to build what we need. It’s up to creators to pursue the highest security and privacy expectations for future platforms.
