Posted by Craig Carpenter
In the current environment where many employees are working from home under shelter-in-place or social distancing directives, virtual meetings and video conferencing services have become critical for continued operations. One video conferencing provider in particular, Zoom Video Communications, has become a popular platform for many businesses, schools, and individuals.
However, along with the increase in useful and productive video conferencing, there has also been in uptick in video conference hijacking—what is being referred to these days as “Zoom bombing.”
Zoom bombing occurs when unauthorized or uninvited individuals “gate-crash” Zoom video conferences, often sharing their screens to show disturbing imagery, playing loud and offensive sounds, or other general mayhem. This occurs most frequently due to publicly available Zoom (or other provider) meeting links. While the disruption caused by Zoom bombing can be embarrassing and disturbing, there are also concerns that video conference hijacking could be used for more sophisticated and nefarious purposes such as theft of intellectual property, misappropriation of sensitive or proprietary information, and/or personal data breach.
Fortunately, there are steps video conference users can take to help prevent Zoom bombing and video conference hijacking. Recently, Zoom Video Communications posted a blog post with helpful tips and best practices to secure your meetings on their platform. These tips include:
- Be careful when posting your meeting links in a public forum
- Avoid using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to host public events
- As the host, use the host tools to manage the meeting and participants:
- Manage participant screen sharing
- Lock the meeting
- Consider using the virtual waiting room
Additionally, it is important to consider your legal and data security obligations when using Zoom or other video conferencing platforms, including:
- Use caution when discussing sensitive or privileged information in a video conference, especially a virtual meeting room that has been publicly posted;
- Consider whether the camera will display personal and confidential information on your desk or in the background;
- Consider whether you have closed out all screens so that others can’t see what is on your computer if you use screen sharing; and
- Consider your obligations regarding recording video conferences and where that recording will be stored.
These tips and suggestions not only apply to Zoom, but could also apply to any video conference platform.
As we all adjust to increased use of video conferencing while working remotely, these guidelines, along with the helpful tips from Zoom, should help users take control of their meetings and prevent unauthorized access and disruption.
For more information from Zoom Video Communications, see: https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/03/20/keep-the-party-crashers-from-crashing-your-zoom-event/
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