Zoom has exploded in popularity since virtual social gatherings and remote work have become a thing of normality during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, with popularity comes an opportunity for some to exploit the service.
Have you heard of Zoombombing? Iconic IT describes it as, “an action taken by a bad actor to disrupt your meetings, and it can affect your business meetings, ‘social gatherings,’ and even your child’s online school attendance meetings. This makes Zoom another platform that needs to be secured for your remote workforce. Zoombombing can range from pornographic sharing to hate speech, and unless you’re proactively securing your Zoom meetings, you are at risk every time you use this platform.”
Sounds a little scary, right? Thankfully, there are easy ways to safeguard and secure your Zoom meetings. Let’s discuss a few:
Upgrade from the free version. You get what you pay for. Although the free version of Zoom is functional, it has shortcomings. By contrast, a paid Zoom membership gives you multiple host permissions, more attendee allowances, custom personal meeting IDs, longer times allowed for meetings, and cloud recordings of meetings. The key feature might be the personal customization of meeting IDs, which allows you to create a meeting ID that would be harder to guess and Zoombomb.
Require a password to enter the meeting. This should be the first step in protecting your meeting. Although not completely foolproof, it’s more likely to deter intruders. Zoombombers use software to scan for Zoom meetings that aren’t password protected, so simply by adding a password, you’re taking yourself a step above that level of vulnerability.
Iconic IT also gives important advice about when to use your personal meeting room: “It’s recommended that hosts do not use their personal meeting rooms for hosting meetings. Much like phone numbers and passwords, if a bad actor stumbles across your individual Zoom meeting link, he or she can easily Zoombomb you.”
Install the latest updates and timely security patches. Similar to any app or device, installing the latest update or security patch keeps you up-to-date and secured. Updates are usually released because they’re needed to upgrade the performance and security of the software. If you fail to keep system updated, then you become vulnerable.
Enable the waiting room for Zoom meetings. This feature allows you, the host, to control who is allowed into the meeting. If you do not recognize an attendee, you can block them from joining the meeting. This may be difficult for larger business meetings but effective for smaller ones, and certainly the virtual meetings between family and friends.
Do not allow participants to share their screen. If this is a possibility, you may want to remove this function in your Zoom meetings. Zoombombers use screen sharing to create chaos, but they can’t take over the screen if this function is turned off.
If you’d like to read more tips from Iconic IT, read the article here.
As a side note, you might find comfort in learning that the Justice Department declared Zoombombing a punishable crime. Hopefully, this deters those pesky hackers from trying to disrupt a socially distanced meeting between friends, family, or colleagues!