How to Run Secure Webinars: 13 Tips to Improve Webinar Security

Webinar security failures can become expensive quickly. A disruption from an unauthorized attendee can derail a product launch, expose sensitive customer data, or damage your brand's credibility with hundreds of prospects watching live.

The good news: Most webinar security risks are fixable with the right technology, settings, and operational habits. Whether you're running lead generation webinars or customer training sessions, I'll share 13 practical security tips to help you protect your content, your attendees, and your reputation.

1. Provide a unique access link for each viewer

Unique access links tie each registrant to a specific, non-transferable URL. That means only the person who registered can use it.

Generic join links can quickly become a security liability. The moment someone shares one of these links publicly, anyone can walk into your event uninvited.

In Livestorm, every registrant automatically receives a unique access link in their confirmation and reminder emails. Registrants must use this link to join the virtual event.

2. Set a registration capacity to limit attendees

Capping registrations gives you control over who gets in and prevents your event from being overrun. As an added bonus, it creates urgency, prompting legitimate registrants to sign up early.

Livestorm lets you set a registration limit directly in your event settings. Once you reach the cap, the registration page displays a message informing visitors the event is full.

You can still manually register specific people as exceptions. This is useful for VIPs or last-minute internal attendees who need access.

3. Require a work email address for registration

Requiring work emails is one of the simplest ways to filter out spam registrations, fake accounts, and people using throwaway addresses. It also improves lead quality for your marketing pipeline since every registrant is tied to a company.

In Livestorm, you can make a work email address a requirement in your event's registration settings. This blocks registrations from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and other free email providers.

4. Adjust speaking permissions for your events

Controlling who can speak during webinars prevents disruptions and security issues, keeping events running smoothly. After all, you probably don't want to give every attendee the ability to unmute themselves and start talking during your webinar.

When you use Livestorm, you can set who gets to speak. For webinars, use the "Only team members and guest speakers can speak" setting to restrict the stage to planned presenters. This is the most secure option for large webinars.

For small groups or internal communications, use the "Everyone can speak" setting. This opens the stage to up to 25 simultaneous speakers.

5. Host an invite-only private event

For sensitive content, restrict access entirely so only approved people can register or enter the event room. This invite-only setup is ideal for internal strategy sessions, paid trainings, or confidential product previews.

You can do this a few different ways in Livestorm. The most straightforward method is to disable your public registration page and share the event link with your guest list. You'll need to approve each person who attempts to enter the waiting room and join the live event.

For internal events, you can allow access to team members only. If external attendees need access, you can add them individually.

6. Recruit a co-host or moderator to manage the event

When you're hosting a webinar, you can't simultaneously watch for security issues. A dedicated co-host or moderator can monitor attendee behavior, handle disruptions, and manage the event logistics while you focus on delivering content.

Assign at least one team member as a moderator for every public-facing webinar. For larger events, plan for one moderator per 50–100 participants to ensure adequate coverage and prevent security issues.

Moderators in Livestorm can block disruptive participants. This instantly disconnects disruptive attendees and prevents them from reentering or creating additional issues.

7. Assign a moderator to monitor the live chat

Disruptions often start in the live chat, with spam links, inappropriate comments, or off-topic noise that distracts your audience. A dedicated chat moderator can catch problems and security concerns before they escalate.

In Livestorm, moderators can delete any message. If necessary, they can also remove and block attendees.

8. Use a webinar platform with enterprise-grade security

Your webinar platform handles sensitive information: attendee names, emails, company details, and sometimes proprietary presentation content. Keep this information safe by choosing a secure webinar platform designed for enterprise use.

Livestorm has enterprise-grade security, including ISO/IEC 27001 compliance and SAML SSO (single sign-on), which works with Okta, Azure, and Onelogin. We also provide a dedicated security portal where customers can review our security documentation.

9. Choose a webinar tool that manages user data securely

If your audience includes anyone in the EU, GDPR compliance is nonnegotiable. (And even if your audience is based elsewhere, it's a good idea to take user privacy seriously.) Your webinar platform needs to store and process personal data according to European data protection rules.

Livestorm is fully GDPR compliant. All data is stored on servers within the EU (in Ireland) and backed up every 24 hours. Enterprise customers can also choose to route live video traffic exclusively through EU or US servers, giving you additional control over where data flows during your events.

10. Rely on webinar software that takes encryption seriously

Encryption protects your webinar content and attendee data from interception during transmission. Without it, anyone positioned between your servers and your attendees could theoretically access the stream or the data.

While many webinar platforms offer encryption, the level and setup vary. Some don't have end-to-end encryption, and others, like Zoom, don't have this option enabled by default.

Livestorm uses TLS 1.2 and 1.3 protocols, AES-256 encryption, and SHA-256 with RSA 2048-bit signatures for all data in transit. For audio and video, Livestorm uses SRTP for media traffic encryption and DTLS-SRTP for key negotiation, which are both IETF-defined standards. Data at rest is encrypted using NIST best practices for salt and pepper cryptography, ensuring secure webinars for organizations of all sizes.

11. Pick a webinar platform that uses SSL

SSL certificates secure the connection between your attendees' browsers and the webinar platform's servers, adding a layer of defense to help prevent data breaches. Without SSL, data transmitted during registration and attendance could be intercepted.

Livestorm holds an A+ rating from Qualys SSL Labs, which means we use the highest standards of encryption for browser-to-server communication. This applies to every part of our webinar software: the dashboard, registration pages, event rooms, and replay pages.

12. Go with browser-based webinar software

Downloadable webinar apps might introduce unnecessary security risks. Every app you install is a potential attack vector. It needs permissions, updates, and access to your system that browser-based webinar software like Livestorm doesn't require.

Freshly chose Livestorm for this reason. As Richard Edwards, Vice President of Infrastructure at Freshly, puts it: “For security reasons, our team avoids installing applications and tools as much as possible — this is why Livestorm immediately appealed to us!”

Before your team goes live, make sure everyone is running the latest version of their browser. Outdated browser versions may have unpatched security vulnerabilities, and they can also cause compatibility issues.

13. Sync webinar data with official integrations

Exporting attendee data through CSV files and manual uploads introduces unnecessary security risks. Data is exposed to potential security risks every time it passes through an uncontrolled channel like a spreadsheet on someone's desktop or an email attachment.

Official integrations eliminate these risks by syncing data directly between platforms via authenticated connections. Make sure the webinar software you choose has the integrations you need.

For example, Livestorm offers native integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, Marketo, Pardot, Pipedrive, and many other marketing automation platforms. For more advanced workflows, the Livestorm MCP (Model Context Protocol) connects Livestorm data to AI assistants and automated workflows through the public API. This enables custom registration flows, bulk registrations, and CRM syncing.

Frequently asked questions about improving webinar security

How do you secure a webinar?

Start by choosing a secure platform that won't compromise your data. Webinar software like Livestorm has enterprise-grade security certifications (ISO 27001, GDPR compliance), strong encryption (TLS 1.2+, AES-256), and SSL protection. Enable platform-level controls like unique access links per registrant, registration caps, work-email-only registration, and restricted speaking permissions.

What are the most secure webinar platforms?

The most secure webinar platforms combine strong encryption, compliance certifications, and granular access controls. Livestorm is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, uses TLS 1.2/1.3 with AES-256 encryption, and holds an A+ SSL rating from Qualys SSL Labs. It also offers SAML SSO for enterprise teams, private event access controls, and browser-based access that eliminates the vulnerabilities that desktop apps often create.

How to protect from Zoom bombing?

Zoom bombing happens when unwanted users join an online event and disrupt it. To prevent this on any platform, use unique access links (not shared meeting IDs), require registration with work email addresses, set registration limits, and restrict speaking permissions to hosts and designated speakers only. Assign a moderator who can remove spam messages and block disruptive users immediately.