We’re almost a year into the massive shift toward virtual events and meetings, and it looks like we’ll still be holding most meetings via online platforms for at least the next few months. After a few recent incidents caught my attention, I thought it was a good time for a reminder to keep security considerations in mind when planning online events. Just as we’ve all moved many operations virtual, so have animal rights activist groups. They are looking for any opportunity to gain access to company or industry meetings, either to disrupt in protest or just to gather intel for future campaigns.

The first step to hosting a more secure event is carefully managing the registration process. If you will be sharing any sensitive information that you wouldn’t want shared publicly, you need to require advance registration for your event and take a look at each registration request that comes in immediately. If any attendees don’t look familiar, look into them and see if you can find any connections to activism. Decline their registration and revoke their access to the event if you do find cause for concern. Consider if you need to promote your event and registration publicly at all, or if internal channels would be more appropriate to use. If your registration page is open to the public, include wording about registration being subject to approval.

You also need to make sure your event hosting platform is secure. For example, if you are using Zoom, choose to host a "Webinar" rather than a "Meeting." During a Zoom "meeting" any attendee can share their screen and speak. During a Zoom "webinar" only panelists can do so. Zoom has implemented additional security measures to help with this (passwords, requiring the host to admit people to meetings) so be sure to make use of those if you do host a Zoom meeting.

During the event, keep a close eye on the chat and Q&A boxes. Have staff members ready to delete anything inappropriate and remove whoever posted it. Do not allow anonymous questions to be submitted so you can see the source of anything concerning that may be shared. You should also discourage attendees from sharing their login credentials or posting the meeting link publicly. If possible, use a meeting hosting platform that only allows one user to use a login at any given time.

When we do get the opportunity to return to in-person gatherings, we’ll need to make sure to keep security principles in mind as well. As eager as we are to host events, activists are just as eager to disrupt them.

Activists “zooming” in: Don’t forget about security for virtual meetings

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