Meetings disrupted by porn and hate images in spate of ’˜Zoom-bombing’ incidents

Meetings disrupted by porn and hate images in spate of ’˜Zoom-bombing’ incidents
Videoconferencing meetings are being disrupted by pornographic and hate images, as well as threatening language according to the FBI.

Conference call hijacking, dubbed “Zoom-bombing” has become a phenomenon worth the FBI’s attention as millions of people have turned to videoconferencing platforms amid the Covid-19 crisis. 

The FBI Boston Division reported that a school had an unidentified individual dial into an online class and shout profanities as well as the teacher’s home address. In another incident, also reported by the FBI Boston Division, an unidentified individual entered a school class and showed swastika tattoos. 

With hordes of organisations – from houses of worship to schools – turning to videoconferencing, sometimes with little or no experience, reports of security vulnerabilities and breaches are rising.

The FBI offered advice (below) to mitigate simple hijacking attempts below but these will not combat more sophisticated hacking bids.

Do not make meetings or classrooms public. In Zoom, there are two options to make a meeting private: require a meeting password or use the waiting room feature and control the admittance of guests.

Do not share a link to a teleconference or classroom on an unrestricted publicly available social media post. Provide the link directly to specific people.

Manage screensharing options. In Zoom, change screensharing to “Host Only.”

Ensure users are using the updated version of remote access/meeting applications. In January 2020, Zoom updated their software. In their security update, the teleconference software provider added passwords by default for meetings and disabled the ability to randomly scan for meetings to join.

Lastly, ensure that your organization’s telework policy or guide addresses requirements for physical and information security.





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