Despite the increasing popularity of WebRTC, there is a mass hysteria about WebRTC security. Even if the technology allows seamless communication without the consumption of too many resources, most businesses are concerned whether they should use it in VoIP application development or not. They tend to look for other suitable alternatives.
However, studies have found that there is no better alternative to WebRTC whether you are a developer looking forward to using the real-time communications technology in your application or an IT person wondering what technology you should deploy to ensure smooth communication in your organization.
In this blog, we will discuss what are common security concerns about WebRTC and why it is the safest alternative.
Common WebRTC Security Concerns
Since the WebRTC technology is embedded in the browser, it often requires you to share screen and provide camera and microphone access to ensure communication with another party.
As a result, businesses are often concerned about the following:
1. Data Stealing
Data stealing is one of the major concerns among businesses at this moment. Here are a few scary ideas that often haunt them:
- Someone can easily record their audio conversations by accessing their microphone,
- Someone can easily snoop on them by accessing their camera
- By remotely accessing their screen, someone can see what they are sharing.
Enjoying the impressive features of WebRTC is one thing but no one wants to be spied with their own device.
2. Privacy Breach
Businesses are also concerned about the breach of their privacy. WebRTC enables access to elements like private IP addresses and other crucial device information. As a result, it becomes easy for some people to gain access to your devices and use this data for ad targeting. That is what ad networks are doing all the time. The last thing any of us would want is to have our privacy breached and ad networks heckling us with nasty ads.
Why is WebRTC the Safest Alternative?
Despite the concerns we mentioned earlier in this blog, WebRTC is very safe. In fact, it is the safest alternative available for VOIP and real-time media streaming application development.
Here are three reasons why WebRTC is the safest alternative for application development:
1. Brower Vendors Take Security Seriously
The biggest reason for relying on WebRTC for application development is that all major browser vendors like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla take security seriously. All of them release new updates every 6-8 weeks. Whenever there is a security threat, vendors immediately fix it.
Hence, you can always be sure that whenever there will be a security breach, the browser vendors will fix it in the next update and your device will always remain safe.
2. WebRTC Eliminates the Pain of Constant Updates
The problem with VoIP applications is that you need to update them from time to time. If you miss one update, there are chances that someone with malicious intent and ingenious mind will find a loophole and try to breach your security.
However, most software does not update automatically. Just in case they do, we receive a notification. But we humans often tend to skip updates because they consume a lot of our time and data. Same is the reason why sometimes we even disable automatic updates.
Now, following are the problems with manual updates:
- We do not know when to upgrade. Sometimes, software companies announce threats and even release security patches, but we completely miss the update.
- Sometimes software updates fail. Even if it is not a big deal for individual computer, it will cause chaos in a company with 100+ employees.
- It is difficult for businesses to keep track of employees and their upgrades.
WebRTC completely resolves this issue by eliminating the need of having to deploy the client software. The only thing you need is a web browser which is regularly updated for security patches. As a result, you always enjoy the latest privileges and you do not have to bother about security anymore.
3. WebRTC Already has Security Measures in Place
It is another reason why WebRTC is the safest alternative even if there are dozens of VoIP solutions in the market. The makers of the WebRTC technology take your security and privacy seriously. They follow the following measures to ensure your security and privacy are never compromised:
- As compared to other VOIP solutions where you can turn encryption ON or OFF, WebRTC makes it compulsory that no media will be sent without encryption.
- WebRTC only works on websites that are served over HTTPS. It means the technology will only work over secure connections.
- WebRTC communication always happens on secure protocols.
- Users are asked to allow access to their devices. So, you can decide whether you want to allow access to your camera/microphone or both.
In a Nutshell
WebRTC is secure, at least more secure than other alternatives for VoIP communication. The technology keeps user security on high regards and takes all necessary steps to preserve it. Hence, you should not shy away from adopting it in VOIP and media streaming application development.
However, take precautions while selecting the development vendor. An inexperienced vendor having a little experience with implementing the technology will do the same harm as choosing the technology that is not secure. So, choose someone with a decent experience who have detailed understanding of the WebRTC architecture and can avoid making simple yet critical WebRTC pitfalls.
Having spent over 8 years developing high-quality online webinar and media streaming applications like EasyWebinar using WebRTC, we can help. Please feel free to approach us with your idea.
Learn more about WebRTC and why it is the new age solution to uninterrupted media streaming.
