Webinar Wire

Webinar Lessons From Criminals

Posted by Ken Molay July 15 2009 12:07 AM EST

The news part of this news story from Virginia is nasty stuff and I will not make light of it in any way. A 60-year-old guy was sentenced to prison for having child pornography on his computer. That's not the kind of news we follow on this site. What makes it interesting for our readers is how he got caught. To quote the article:

"Guilbeault hosted a live meeting over the Internet in the course of his employment with a software company. At the conclusion of this Web meeting, he neglected to disconnect his computer from the host network, enabling attendees to the meeting to continue to view from their own computer desktops information orginating from Guilbeault’s computer.

A meeting participant observed several images of young girls in lewd poses as well as a list of file names suggestive of pornography along with the words “Walter Guilbeault’s Desktop,” all displayed in the browser window where the Web meeting had been conducted."

We'll assume you don't have legally incriminating material plastered clearly on your work computer (sheesh!), but there can easily be things you would prefer your audience not see.

If you are going to run a screen share in a web conference, make sure to clean up your computer desktop first. Get rid of the personal photo you have as your background. Create a folder and move all your desktop icons into it. After the conference you can select all the files in the folder and drag them back onto your desktop. Easy.

And for goodness sake... Learn how to operate your web conferencing software so you know how to turn off the screen sharing when you are done! I'm glad this guy got caught, but I have no desire to see you professionally embarrassed just because you inadvertantly display a love note from your sweetie to your prospective customers.