July-20 Safe Zoom Meetings

Jun24

Posted by CERC India
Posted in Uncategorized

Zoom Meetings: Tips to keep them safe

The Coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we work, communicate and socialize. With more employees working from home, businesses are turning to video conferencing apps to hold meetings. Educational institutions are using these to conduct classes. And, people confined to their homes are increasingly using these apps to connect to friends and family, even holding quarantine parties! Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting, Zoom and Skype are some apps that are popular for video conferencing.

Zoom has gained popularity because it offers free sessions for 40 minutes with unlimited number of meetings. Each meeting can have up to 100 participants. However, concerns have emerged regarding privacy issues and data security for meetings conducted on Zoom. The most talked about Zoom security issue is ‘zoombombing’ which lets just anyone easily hack into meetings and show inappropriate content. This is possible if the Meeting Id for any session has been made public.

We bring you some precautions that should be taken to protect your privacy and data while using Zoom.

Do’s

As a Host

Select dynamic passwords, which means that you get a new password every time you hold a meeting even if the group remains same.
Share the password for the meeting just before the meeting so that the risk of the password being circulated in public is minimum.
Enable the waiting room so that you can verify participants in the meeting, even if intruders have got your meeting password. This acts as a second barrier.
Use the Lock the meeting feature once all the participants have joined, to prevent any unwanted person from attending your meeting.
Control the screen sharing option. This feature should be used only by those participants who need to share their screen. Otherwise, the feature should be turned off.
If you are holding a meeting of a large group, consider having co-hosts who can monitor settings and chat sessions.

As a Participant

Always use the updated version of the video conferencing platform because the company keeps fixing bugs and ensures that you have maximum security features.

Don’ts

As a Host

Don’t give the permission for ‘far end camera control’, as other participants can use this feature to control your camera.
‘Join before the host’ option should not be enabled, to ensure no unwanted person enters the meeting before you and creates trouble.
Never use your personal Zoom meeting ID. Select “Generate Automatically” option for Meeting ID and don’t share this with anyone.
No recording should be done of any session without the consent of all the participants.

As a participant

Don’t share the password of any meeting with someone who is not a participant of the meeting.
Never keep your camera on while joining the meeting. Use your camera only after verifying all participants.
Don’t use the zoom file sharing feature as there are concerns about the privacy.

Source: https://news.iu.edu/, https://warwick.ac.uk/, https://www.businessinsider.in/