The Three Greatest Virtual Training Security Threats

by Glen Vondrick

June 27, 2017

When I ask people if they ever think about virtual training security, they often come back with the same thing: “You mean, do we have virtual training sessions about security? Yes. Yes, we do.”

It pretty much answers my question. Organizations may be conducting online training sessions to educate their workers about information security, but they aren’t giving a lot of thought to how secure the sessions themselves are. Here are 3 reasons why they should.

1. Threat Of Hacked Content

Compromised training info may not seem like a scary threat. But think about it. These training sessions share data about an organization’s strategies, processes, customers, and products. And the security threat goes beyond corporate data. What about the knowledge and coordination being communicated among government organizations? These are details about our nation and its infrastructure that could be used by an enemy against the state. And since these sessions are often recorded, archived, and indexed for future reference, the information isn’t exposed just once. Whether the data is deliberately hacked or inadvertently mishandled, its exposure puts the organization, its people, and the people they serve at risk.

2. Threat of Leaked Content

It’s not just the kind of information that renders shared online content a security risk. It’s the power of the flexibility of the online tools themselves. If you email out an invite to a WebEx conference, how do you know that email wasn’t compromised? What about the numerous people who write their passwords on a sticky note attached to their monitor? How do you know the slides you presented weren’t saved onto a laptop that was later lost? If it’s sensitive information, do attendees have the right NonDisclosure Agreement in place or appropriate security credentials?

In fact, consider this: When we recently surveyed workers about their eLearning experiences, 13% said they wouldn’t have a problem with sharing confidential information from a training session just to help out a friend. On top of that, 21% weren’t sure whether they had a problem with it. That means 34% of your workforce might not have a problem with sharing your corporate secrets.

3. Threat Of Disruption

There’s yet another side to the eLearning security threat: disruption of online training or collaboration that could have devastating consequences if disrupted. I’m not talking about “Brushing Up on Best Practices for Customer Service.” I’m talking about hastily arranged web conferencing sessions like “TSA: New Security Vulnerability Uncovered.” These are high-consequence sessions that have to occur on time and without a hitch. If they don’t, rapid knowledge transfer is disrupted, putting the health or existence of certain organizations and even people at risk.

Now that you know the three greatest threats to the security of your virtual training sessions, tune in next week to learn what you can do about them.

In the meantime, here’s more on security.