Easy ways to stop the 'zoom bombers' trying to hack into your virtual meeting
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX/WTTE) — A video meeting site being used by friends and businesses during the coronavirus pandemic is taking steps to lock out uninvited guests.
Zoom, the video conferencing company, is now offering additional passwords and creating waiting rooms for people using it’s free and lower-tier paid services to prevent “zoom bombing” by hackers.
“I had a friend of mine tell me, he was in a meeting and all of a sudden in the middle of the meeting, somebody popped in and mooned the whole group,” said Pat Donadio, a communications speaker and executive coach.
Shortly after similar reports started surfacing, Zoom increased its security default settings for users, including additional password inputs and more privacy controls for meeting hosts.
Donadio says meeting hosts can also take extra steps to stop an uninvited guest from getting in.
“Turn off video and audio for attendees. That way you have to turn it on for them, so it’s going to stop them from popping in,” said Donadio.
Meeting hosts also being asked to create a specific ID for the meeting and not to use their personal ID when creating the event.
