Hi all,
I’ve just discovered that these Zoom meetings are happening, and want to mention something that (after skimming this thread and doing a couple of forum searches) doesn’t seem to have come up yet: zoombombing.
For those who haven’t heard of this, it’s when unwanted guests enter a meeting (gate crash) and are generally disruptive. If the host hasn’t locked down control of the screen they will post... well, you can guess what they will post.
Hosts have been encouraged not to post meeting details, especially passwords, on the public internet. I notice that these details are being shared on our announcement thread.
It seems that we have been lucky so far. I don’t like to be a doomsayer but I think it is accurate to predict that if we continue to post details publically, it will only be a matter of time before our luck runs out.
Zoom is implementing a new tool, the At Risk Meeting Notifier, that:
scans public posts on social media sites and other public online resources for Zoom meeting links. When it finds publicly posted meeting information that indicates a given meeting may be at high risk of being disrupted, we notify account owners and admins by email.
Although some public meeting are more high profile and more “at risk” than others, it seems that zoombombers are not choosy and will disrupt any meetings they can, just for the fun of it.
Another new security feature was announced yesterday, which, although not a way to stop the bombers getting in, at least gives the user a quick way to halt the bombing:
To suspend a meeting, click the Security icon while on a call and then click “Suspend Participant Activities.” When you do, all video, audio, in-meeting chat, annotations, screen sharing, and recording will be suspended and all breakout rooms will end, which should shut down the Zoombomber’s activity. From there, Zoom will ask the host if they want to report a user, and if they do, that user will be ejected from the meeting and Zoom’s security team will be notified.
Anyway, I am glad these meetings are happening and that everything seems to have proceeded smoothly so far. I am only concerned that some of the quite serious problems others have experienced with zoom might befall us too, and want us to do everything we can to avoid that.