Zoom

A popular solution for Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing - Zoom has also been plagued by privacy and security issues and concerns, however this has done little to dent its popularity for video conferencing, online meetings, chat, and mobile collaboration. I have noticed a lot of advice on Zoom, so thought I should gather this together, as it might come in handy, although it should be noted a number of organisations have banned its use, whilst others have rolled it out globally.

I have included my references below and limited these to known and trusted people/organisations. Here, in no particular order is some good advice if you have to use Zoom:

• If you have an account, make sure the password is unique (standard advice) and your e-mail address is secured, preferably with Multi Factor Authentication
• Run Zoom in your browser, they are generally regularly patched automatically, sandboxed and safer. I have seen suggestions the meeting organiser needs to enable this (see Show a "Join from your browser" Link – Zoom Help Center), as otherwise it is hard to get the fallback to browser link shown
• Any locally installed Zoom software should be patched, frequently, see Where Do I Download The Latest Version? – Zoom Help Center
• Use Waiting Rooms, so you can see and control who is in the meeting, see Secure Your Meetings with Zoom Waiting Rooms - Zoom Blog
• Control Screen Sharing, to avoid surprises, see Managing participants in a meeting – Zoom Help Center
• Random Meeting IDs, preferably with passwords is a good idea, see Meeting and Webinar Passwords – Zoom Help Center
• Use the "Lock Meeting" feature to keep out uninvited guests
• Do not type something into a Zoom chat, to everyone or direct to someone, that you would not want to be public

Some of the things mentioned may require a paid for account and also might not be what you want for a public webinar, but however you use Zoom, think carefully about how you can secure the meeting and keep everyone safe. Sometimes setting sensible defaults like audio and video muting can really help.

This is by no means a definitive list, but is intended to give helpful suggestions and encourage users to think.

In 2020 Zoom have listened to feedback, and made improvements, for example after initially saying that End-to-End encryption was only available on paid accounts they announced that is would be available on free accounts as well, see End-to-End Encryption Update - Zoom Blog.

References

• Security and Privacy Implications of Zoom - Schneier on Security
• 5 things you can do today to make Zooming safer – Naked Security
• Mozilla Foundation - Tips to Make Your Zoom Gatherings More Private