The FBI has received multiple reports of video teleconferencing and online classroom hijacking, also called “Zoom-bombing”, during the COVID-19.

As a surge of workers move to remote work during the Coronavirus quarantine, more people are using the remote conference tool, Zoom, to conduct meetings. But there are security concerns as “Zoom-Bombing”, the term used to hack into Zoom meetings, has surfaced disrupting your business meeting, or worse, sharing disturbing images and content.

Tips to Keep Zoom Safe During Meetings

Here’s how to ensure a secure meeting experience using Zoom.

When Scheduling your Zoom Meeting:

• Set passwords for your meetings, the password is automatically generated in the calendar invite.
• Do not select ‘enable join before host’. Participants will see a pop-up dialog that says, “The meeting is waiting for the host to join,” which provides additional control and security for meetings, especially in personal meeting rooms. 
• Enable ‘Waiting Room’. This Zoom feature is a virtual staging area that stops your guests from joining until you’re ready for them. This allows the host to control when a participant joins the meeting, either one by one or admit them all at once.
• Select ‘Only authenticated users can join: Sign in to Zoom’. If this option is enabled, only users who are signed into their Zoom client can join the meeting. 

During your Zoom Meeting:

• The Lock Meeting feature allows the host to lock the meeting that’s already started, therefore no new participants can join, even if they have the meeting ID and password. In the meeting, click Participants at the bottom of your Zoom window. In the Participants pop-up, click the button that says Lock Meeting.
• You can Remove Unwanted Participants. If someone doesn’t belong in the meeting, go to the Participants menu, mouse over a participant’s name, and several options will appear, including Remove.

The ability to Screen-share a Single Application. When participants are sharing their screens, they have the ability to share an entire screen or just a single application. Selecting the single application prevents accidentally revealing confidential information during a meeting.

According to Webroot, Zoom-Related Threats Up 2,000%

Lastly, if you plan to host a public Zoom meeting, and you share your meeting link on social media, this makes your event VERY public and anyone with the link can join the meeting. Avoid using your Personal Meeting ID, to avoid risk of future Zoom-Bombs.  Instead, generate a random meeting ID.

Teknologize has clients throughout the Pacific Northwest with offices located in the Tri-Cities, Washington 509.396.6640 and Bend, Oregon 541.848.6072.