Safeguarding Your Zoom Meetings

May 5, 2020

You may have heard Zoom’s name in the news recently, so we’d like to answer some of your security and privacy questions.

If you have any questions not addressed here, please send them to it.helpdesk@biola.edu.

Is Zoom safe to use?

Yes. Zoom has quickly patched every newly-discovered vulnerability in their software, and they are focused on improving security even more. Whenever the Zoom app prompts you for an update, install it right away. These updates contain security patches.

Follow Zoom’s tips for keeping your Zoom event secure. If you use Zoom’s security settings when hosting a meeting you can protect your meeting from uninvited guests. Also we recommend you take a few moments to learn how to manage screen sharing and participants.

In the next release of the Zoom app for Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android the meeting host will have a Security icon in their meeting controls, which combines all of Zoom’s existing in-meeting security controls into one place.

What is Zoombombing?

Zoombombing happens when uninvited attendees show up and disrupt your meeting. An easy fix is to add a password to your Zoom meeting. Zoom meetings scheduled after April 5th have passwords enabled by default.

What about stealing login credentials?

Reports have surfaced that attackers are stealing Zoom usernames and passwords, but the threat is just like phishing. To protect yourself, use a long passphrase, don’t use the same passphrase for multiple services, and avoid clicking on links or attachments in suspicious emails.

What about a remote computer takeover?

This was a security flaw in Zoom that the company identified and patched within 24 hours.

Zoom addressed this in the Zoom App update on April 2, 2020 Version 4.6.9 (19273.0402).

Does Zoom Use End-to-End Encryption?

Zoom does offer secure, private, and encrypted web conferencing but Zoom does not technically meet the requirements for end-to-end encryption. Zoom is safe to use for most of the web conferencing we do at Biola.

Matthew Green, a cryptographer and professor at Johns Hopkins University, simply said - “It’s complicated” and wrote an excellent, accessible blog post explaining Zoom’s encryption.

Does Zoom share data with Facebook?

No, not any longer. Many apps share data with Facebook because it enables the option to log in with Facebook. The problem was that Zoom didn’t mention it in their privacy policy. Once it was brought to light, they immediately removed the code from their app.

What you should know about recordings and Zoom

• The ability to record the Zoom meetings is managed by the host and can be disabled for all attendees.
• The Zoom application will always notify meeting participants when a meeting is being recorded.
• Recording someone without their consent is illegal. Most work meetings are intended to be confidential in nature because they pertain to University business. As a result, the best practice is to not record any meeting without the prior consent of all participants. To obtain consent, ask all participants before recording. If consent is obtained, then begin recording and ask all participants to verbalize their consent on the recording before proceeding with the meeting.
• If you record a Zoom meeting, we recommend that you store it locally and share it through Canvas or Google Drive.
• Unfortunately there are bad actors who can use other recording technologies to record a web conferencing session as well as phone and in-person meetings. If you suspect that someone is recording a meeting without your consent please disconnect from the session and notify your supervisor.

Do I have to enable my camera in a web conferencing meeting?

Biola does not require employees to enable their camera in web conferencing meetings.

Does Zoom still use Attendee Tracking?

No. “Attendee Tracking” referred to Zoom’s ability to track how often the Zoom window was in the forefront of a user’s screen. Zoom removed the attendee tracking feature on April 2nd.

Pepperdine’s helpful safe meetings page:

https://community.pepperdine.edu/it/tools/zoom/safemeetings.htm