Human Firewall Tip # 20: Zoom bombing Prevention

On our previous post, we have shared Zoom security challenges. Now that most of the people are at home, whether working, home schooling or no work at all, they tend to find other means on how to get in touch with their colleagues, loved ones or friends. Zoom became popular because it is free and easy to use. But with its success and popularity came an avalanche of scrutiny from users. Not to mention, its success has invited cyber criminals to take advantage of its users and security flaws.

One of the most popular cyber attacks that involves Zoom is Zoom bombing. This was coined based from photo bombing or video bombing. But this version of "bombing" is different. Hackers or "guests" gain access to a Zoom meeting and attempt to disrupt the on-going video conference participants by shouting profanity or racial slurs, or putting disturbing or offensive images in their video feed.

It is a bit scary if you are going to think about it especially if you are going to experienced this while in the middle of a meeting or if you are teaching students right? In our #humanfirewalltipoftheday , we are sharing what are the best way to prevent this type of cyber attack.

• Always protect all of your meetings with a password. Password is not set by default, this makes a Zoom meeting vulnerable from uninvited participants that will do anything to sabotage your video conference with other people. ZDnet has created the following ways on how to do this on your account, for your groups and even for your meetings or webinars
• Do not share your meeting information or meeting ID on social media or any public posts. A meeting ID is the 9-digit meeting number associated with an instant or scheduled meeting. When a meeting is created, Zoom generates a meeting ID and each ID number is individual to each meeting that is created. Sharing a meeting ID to the public and starting the meeting without a password is a Zoom conference disaster in the making. 
• Zoom has also the capability to share your screen while in a video conference call. As a best practice, control your meeting in such a way that the host is the only one who can share their screen. This way, you can minimise uninvited participants in sharing their screens - that is if they were able to evade the previous two tips. Zoom has created a blog on how to do this. 

These are the top #humanfirewalltips on how to protect your Zoom meetings in case you still decided to use it. 

If you find this useful, share this to your friends and family. Spread the word as we build more Human Firewall together. 

Disclaimer: Following the Human Firewall tips are at your own discretion. Any actions you may take upon the information on this page is strictly at your own risk.