One effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been an explosion in the use of video conferencing technologies (VCT) and the number of service offerings. There are tens of millions of daily users on Zoom, Teams, WebEx, and other platforms. These products offer the ability to have virtual meetings with large numbers of people from any location connected to the internet. The number of platforms has also increased dramatically. Although Zoom, Teams, and WebEx have the largest market shares, they have more than a dozen competitors (both U.S. and foreign) offering similar services. The sudden expansion of reliance on these technologies has raised understandable concerns about risk and security.

Key points:

• Media reporting on video conferencing risk was not always accurate. Suggesting that a competitor has security problems is one technique used to shift markets and customers. However, if these suggestions are provided without attribution, they are not a very good basis for assessing risk.
• Encryption is essential for reducing the risk of using VTC and is provided by major suppliers. End-to-end encryption adds a layer of protection but comes at the cost of reduced services and regulatory concerns.
• The leading VTC services have begun to converge in two key metrics: convenience and security. Competition over which VTC service to use is increasingly a matter of price, innovation in new services, interoperability with other programs, and consumer preferences.