Security and Privacy in Unified Communication

Abstract

The use of unified communication; video conferencing, audio conferencing, and instant messaging has skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, security and privacy considerations have often been neglected. This article provides a comprehensive survey of security and privacy in Unified Communication (UC). We systematically analyze security and privacy threats and mitigations in a generic UC scenario. Based on this, we analyze security and privacy features of the major UC market leaders, and we draw conclusions on the overall UC landscape. While confidentiality in communication channels is generally well protected through encryption, other privacy properties are mostly lacking on UC platforms.