Tuesday, March 31, 2020
We got zoombombed. Here's what we learned.
During this time of “social distancing” and “shelter-in-place,” the City Club is presenting virtual forums to keep our community connected and informed. At the beginning of our virtual City Club forum on the CARES Act, we were “Zoombombed” by an individual who shared inappropriate content. Unaware of this Zoombombing phenomenon, we quickly ended the Zoom call and the livestream to prevent the content from being shared. Some quick sleuthing on the part of our team led us to discover how common Zoombombing has become – and all the ways it can be prevented. We felt it our civic duty to share what we learned and prevent further disruptions.
If you encounter Zoombombers during a meeting, consider these steps:
- Assign at least two co-hosts
- Mute all participants
- Lock the meeting, if all attendees are present
To prevent Zoombombers from even entering your workspace, consider:
- Disable autosaving chats
- Disable file transfer
- Disable screen sharing for non-hosts
- Disable remote control
- Disable annotations
- Use per-meeting ID, not personal ID
- Disable “Join Before Host”
- Enable “Waiting Room”
For the FBI advisory on the phenomenon, click here.
Becky Morgan - March 31, 2020
Thank you for sharing this! I knew it was happening but didn't know how to prevent or control it. Very helpful information.