Security best practices

You can improve security in your organization by using the following best practices.

• Configure Microsoft Communicator for Mac 2011 to use Transport Layer Security (TLS), which provides encrypted signaling. The confidentiality of otherwise-encrypted communications, such as media, is not protected when Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is used to connect to the server. The encryption key can be intercepted by an attacker and used to decrypt the message.

• Instruct users to run a virus check before they open transferred files. File transfer between users is peer-to-peer; by default, all file transfers are encrypted.

• Reduce the access of external network connections to open ports on your local network. Knowing which ports are open can help you assess the security of the system or troubleshoot any connection issues. You should close the ports that you do not use. For more information about the ports that are used for audio/video sessions, see Communicator for Mac 2011 managed preferences

• If you want to block specific features or functionality for your users, you can enforce computer level policies by using managed preferences. For more information about which features you can block, see Communicator for Mac 2011 managed preferences.

• Implement password-controlled access to the network.

• The Communicator for Mac preference file is stored in the user's home folders: /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Communicator.plist. The preference file contains security settings. Users should make sure that their home folders cannot be accessed by other unauthorized users.