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Are Your Zoom Meetings Vulnerable To Intruders?

Video meeting solutions like Zoom have become incredibly valuable tools for businesses that are trying to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Are you sure your Zoom meetings are properly secured against intruders?

As businesses operate from home during the coronavirus pandemic, there’s been a rise in the use of online video meeting platforms. Cybercriminals have started targeting unprotected video meetings, infiltrating them to cause disruptions and eavesdrop on private conversations.

As with any new technology you use, you need to think carefully about the cybersecurity implications – are you doing everything you should to secure the meetings you’re having with coworkers, friends, and family?

What Is Zoom?

Let’s start by making sure we’re on the same page about Zoom. This is a video conferencing solution that allows up to 1,000 attendees to get together a single virtual meeting. It has become widely popular over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, both for professional purposes as well as social ones.

Unfortunately, any technology that becomes this popular this quickly often attracts the attention of cybercriminals and troublemakers. With Zoom, this has led to something called “Zoom-bombing”.

What Is Zoom-Bombing?

Zoom-bombing occurs when someone intrudes on your meeting to causes disruptions or eavesdrop on your conversation. Given how many Zoom meetings are taking place every day, it’s rather easy for cybercriminals to track down meeting info and intrude.

How Can You Protect Your Next Zoom Meeting?

The good news is that Zoom-bombing is only a risk for unsecured meetings. If you take the right precautions, you can make sure that only those who have been invited actually get into your meeting.

  • Set A Password For Your Meeting. In Zoom’s settings, you can enable a password requirement for all instant meetings.
  • Use A Unique Meeting ID. It can be convenient to use your personal meeting ID (PMI), but it’s not the safest option. This number is the same every time, so as soon as the wrong person gets their hands on it, all your future meetings are compromised. Instead, you can have Zoom generate a unique ID for each meeting.
  • Don’t Share Meeting Info On Social Media. Again, it may be easier to get the word out about your next big meeting by using social media, but without the right security settings in place, anyone can get that info. If you need to share an invite, do it directly over email.
  • Don’t Use A Waiting Room. Citizen Lab has discovered a vulnerability with Zoom’s Waiting Room feature. Until it is patched, it’s safer to Zoom’s password feature instead.
  • Limit Screen Share To Hosts. One of the key ways that intruders disrupt meetings is by displaying inappropriate content through screen share. Make sure to select “only the host can share” under the settings.
  • Manage Participants Carefully. As the host, you have a lot of power as to what goes on in the meeting. You can mute or boot participants as you see fit by using the “Manage Participants” option.

If you’re worried about your work-from-home technologies or cybersecurity, then don’t try to handle it all on your own. The DeVeera team will help you evaluate your remote capabilities as a whole to make sure you’re not missing out on useful solutions or taking on any unnecessary risks.

Like this article? Check out the following blogs to learn more:

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