The videoconferencing app-Zoom has soared to success with a hike in its usage due to the ‘Work from Home’ regime forcing everyone to work/study from home via video conferencing. Zoom surfaced to be a great option because of its participant limit, easy accessibility and collaborative features like whiteboard and screen sharing. The platform has some major security flaws ranging from hacking into an ongoing meeting, stealing personal credentials to breaking into the users’ webcam and microphone and executing remote programs that are malicious in nature. The Ministry of Home Affairs deemed the platform to be not safe but issued some advisory guidelines for those who still want to use it. If you are one of these individuals, follow these top 10 security measures to keep yourself safe while using zoom app:
#1 Password protect
When creating a meeting id, always password protect it in order to prevent unauthorized entry into the meeting. You can do this by going to the settings and selecting ‘Require a password when scheduling new meetings’ option.
#2 Lock your meetings
Once the attendees are in and the session has started, lock your meeting to prevent anyone with the meeting id from entering randomly.You can access this feature by going to the ‘Manage Participants’ tab followed by ‘More’ and ‘lock’ once everyone has joined the session.
#3 Waiting room
Use the ‘Waiting Room’ feature in Zoom to screen the participants before their entry into the session.This can be enabled from the Account Management section of the app.
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#4 Private meetings
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.
#5 Screen Sharing
Make sure that the screen sharing option is on “Host Only”. This lets only the host share their screens and nobody else.
#6 Link sharing
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.
#7 Join before host
In order to prevent anyone to join the session before you (host) do. You can disable “Join Before Host” from the settings.
#8 Restrict recording feature
You restrict the recording feature so that the meeting cannot be recorded. Go to your recording Tab and disable Automatic Recording.
#9 End meetings
When the session is over, remember to hit the ‘End Meeting’ then ‘Leave meeting’ to kill the meeting. Just leaving will allow the meeting to exist even after you have exited.
#10 File Transfer
Navigate to the File Transfer option on the Settings tab and disable the option. This prevents the transferring of files that might be malicious during the session.