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Preventing online meeting hijacking

Published: 6 April 2020 at 12:16

Following the increased use of video-conferencing platforms to connect with others – both across ARU and beyond - in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, there are reports of so-called ‘Zoom-bombing’ incidents by uninvited participants who ‘gate crash’ the conference call.

Such disruption can take many forms, including the forced sharing of inappropriate content through its screen sharing function. 

While most Zoom-bombing occurs when joining instructions to a Zoom meeting or webinar are shared publicly, problems can also occur unless steps are taken to ensure that conference calls and webinars are made secure.  

To help avoid falling prey to such unpleasant incidents, ARU colleagues should use Microsoft Teams, ARU’s primary tool for online meetings and webinars. For most situations Teams provides all the required functionality; however, there may be specific situations, for example where breakout rooms are needed, that require the use of Zoom.

 

We have therefore developed some simple Online Meeting Tools and Security Guidance for the use of both MS Teams and Zoom which will help you take the necessary precautions to ensure that they run smoothly and only invited participants are able to join your meetings and/or webinars.