As we all do our very best to navigate through this COVID-19 crisis, one ongoing struggle is learning to simply function normally with our daily lives and working from home.
One big aspect of this is still being able to attend classes, meetings, or just staying in touch with friends and loved ones. Even though the IT world has offered many solutions to this for some time now, it has become even more important in our current situations.
Just a few of these options include Skype which is offered as a feature through your Microsoft applications, FaceTime which is offered through your Apple Products, and one of the most popular ones as of lately is Zoom. Zoom is a widely used application by universities offered so students can still attend classes virtually, businesses so that employees can still attend meetings, and even common resident users so they can check in and actually see and speak to loved ones even if it is not in person.
As great and beneficial as this product is, it is still important to keep in mind that there are some security risks and issues. One main concern to be aware of is what is called “Zoom-Bombing”. This is where intruders are able to access meetings that are not password protected and has led to serious privacy concerns, two big examples being A.A. meetings and Church meetings.
However, the good news is as of last Friday Zoom stopped development on new product features so it could focus on fixing various privacy and security issues. As of now all meetings that use a Personal Meeting ID will now need a password, and password settings that have been disabled will be re-enabled.
As a result, passwords will be required for instant meetings, for participants joining by phone and when a new meeting is scheduled. A few other items to keep in mind are that Zoom stated that schools using it is software will have the new password settings locked permanently, while others with free accounts, or paid accounts with a single licensed user can remove the requirements if they want.
Also, Zoom’s waiting room feature has been enabled by default to allow hosts to view the participants before letting them in. As always if you have any concerns or issues in regards to this subject or any computer problems in general please do not hesitate to contact us at Frankenstein Computers and Networking and we will be more than happy to assist you.
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