Advisors beware "Zoom bombing." Several Zoom sessions—the phrase used to describe online virtual gatherings or meetings using the Zoom application—were interrupted with unwelcome guests sharing porn videos last week.
In a nutshell, one of the aspects of Zoom that has made it so appealing is how open the application is, meaning you do not have to tinker with a lot of settings to get it to work. However, that openness has made it a target for those that are bored and looking for ways to wreak havoc on the internet from the comfort of home during the COVID-19 crisis.
Zoom itself posted a lengthy blog Friday to help users adjust settings to prevent others from hijacking user sessions.
Several things to keep in mind from its blog:
- When you share your meeting link on social media or other public forums, that makes your event … extremely public. ANYONE with the link can join your meeting.
- Avoid using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to host public events. Your PMI is basically one continuous meeting and you don’t want randos crashing your personal virtual space after the party’s over. Learn about meeting IDs and how to generate a random meeting ID (at the 0:27 mark) in this video tutorial.
- Familiarize yourself with Zoom’s settings and features so you understand how to protect your virtual space when you need to. For example, the Waiting Room is an unbelievably helpful feature for hosts to control who comes and goes.
Thus far, likely because of its openness and ease of use, Zoom has been the only videoconferencing app to be attacked in this way. There also have been short-lived outages among a handful of more business-oriented conferencing apps over the past week.
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