Cyber security experts are warning people that the video meeting programs we now rely on might not be as secure as some might think. “Zoom bombing” is becoming a trend where people who are not supposed to be able to access Zoom meetings are getting in anyway. The experts say that people using the program should double check their privacy settings, and shouldn’t post the link to zoom meetings on public forums unless necessary.

Telecommuting and home-based learning is the new normal and people around the world are using video meetings and its essential that you know how to use video conferencing tools safely.

In Singapore more than half a million students will be on home-based learning and even more adults will use video meeting working from home.One day after the start of the home-based learning period on April 8 the Singapore Ministry of Education announced that it was suspending Zoom following one incident in which hackers hijacked some students’ Zoom stream and showed pornographic content.

Similar “Zoom bombing” incidents have been reported around the world. In the wake of this and other privacy and cyber security concerns. Zoom has improved some of its security features and meeting controls. So what should users take note of to prevent themselves from becoming victims of harassment, privacy loss and eavesdropping when using video conferencing tools ?

Five Top Tips

It is vital to use the latest version of the software so that the bugs of the past would have been removed or fixed.

Remember that companies such as Zoom collect personal data such as name, email address, phone number, job title and even employer, as well as the IP address and device being used. Furthermore, if users sign in using Facebook, information will be collected from the Facebook profile. To retain some privacy, avoid using Facebook to sign in.

Do not share your meeting link on public forums or on social media as this makes it easier for unauthorised persons to gain access to your meeting.

Familiarise yourself with your platform’s features and settings so as to be secure and protect your virtual space. For instance, Zoom has a “Waiting Room” feature that enables the host to manage the people who join and leave the meeting. Using this feature will enhance your security when hosting a meeting.

Users should refrain from using one’s Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to host events for the public. One’s PMI is a personal virtual meeting space that should not be open to others, except for close and trusted colleagues or users.

While using their video cameras during a Zoom session, users who want to increase the privacy level and prevent others from seeing the details of their physical background or surroundings can activate the virtual background feature such as a scene from the beach. You can choose to switch off your camera, if the video feature is not required.

As a host of meetings or conferences, you can take extra precautions. For example, you should retain control of the screen.
Before and during a meeting, you can restrict the ability to screen share, so as to prevent others from sharing undesirable content or snatching control of your screen.

Additional security measures include setting up a two-factor authentication. Users can then only get access if they have the randomly generated meeting ID and a password. This enhances the level of security and limited access.

Another approach is to only enable signed-in or pre-invited users to join in the meeting.

You can “lock the meeting”. This Zoom feature allows the host to prevent others from joining the meeting. In this way, those with the meeting ID and password also cannot enter this virtual meeting room, once it is “locked”.

To increase security and control as a host, you can exercise the option to remove disruptive and undesirable participants from the meeting.

You can put the participants on hold and temporarily disable their video and audio connections to reduce noise and prevent interference.

Such features will be useful for educators when they are using video-conferencing tools with an excited or vocal group of students.

Besides Zoom, there are other video-conferencing options such as Skype, though it has a limit of a maximum of 50 users per session. Users might also consider using more secure platforms for business, like Google Meet and Facetime. Microsoft Teams is another free and popular video-conferencing platform with file and screen sharing features, capable of hosting up to 250 participants in a meeting.

Microsoft Teams and Google Meet require users to have accounts with them, whereas Zoom allows users to participate using their web browsers.

Another leading provider is Cisco Webex, which offers a secure video-conferencing platform that does not require participants to have a Webex account to join the online meetings. Its free version can host up to 100 participants, with a range of features including a white board function and no time limit for meetings.

Ultimately, each video-conferencing option has its strengths and limitations and the onus is on users to examine the security features carefully and use them effectively. Companies offering video-conferencing tools should highlight to users their security features and make a number of these features the default standard mode of use.

Parents and teachers could also educate their young to be aware of the importance of cyber security and to apply security measures when they are online. Cyber security is an essential life skill to protect us from online dangers and viruses, as we work and learn at home, while we fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Zoom security: I’ve researched problems with video conferencing for years – here’s what you need to know

May 1, 2020 7.40am EDT

Author

Thomas Reisinger
PhD Candidate in Cyber Security, De Montfort University

Disclosure statement

Thomas Reisinger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Partners

De Montfort University provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

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The video conferencing app Zoom gained about 2 million new users in the first two months of 2020 – and that was before the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. With so many people now relying on video conferencing for contact with their friends, family and colleagues, it’s no wonder Zoom has seen a significant increase in its company stock price. But the firm has also attracted some negative press recently for issues related to its privacy and security.

I worked in the video conferencing industry for 10 years. During this time, I started a PhD on whether such systems meet the needs of organisations that have to communicate under adversarial circumstances, such as international NGOs and opposition groups under oppressive regimes. My near-finished research shows that Zoom has indeed had plenty of problems, but is far from the only platform with security and privacy issues.

A number of issues with Zoom have attracted public attention, most notably call hijacking or “Zoom-bombing”. Calls that are not set to private or password-protected can be accessed by anyone who inputs the nine- to 11-digit meeting code, and researchers have shown how valid meeting codes could easily be identified (something Zoom now says it prevents).

Zoom has also recently had to make changes to its iPhone and iPad apps to stop Facebook being able to collect data about users. And last year it was forced to fix a problem that could have allowed websites to turn on Mac users’ cameras without permission.

Another issue, recently highlighted by The Intercept, is that Zoom claims its calls can be encrypted, but doesn’t use the kind of end-to-end encryption that many people have come to understand as standard for private communication services. Messages or calls sent with end-to-end encryption are effectively locked with the receiving user’s public key that anyone can access, but can only be unlocked by the user’s private key. This system is used by messaging apps such as WhatsApp to ensure only a message’s recipient can read it – not even the app’s provider has access.

Zoom instead uses the AES-256 ECB method of encryption, which shares the key used to encrypt calls with Zoom’s servers around the globe. This potentially gives them full access to the audio and video streams, although the company has stated no user content is available to its employees or servers once encrypted.

Researchers have also found that encryption keys even up on Zoom servers based in China (where the company has development sites) even when no Chinese participants are in the call. This opens the possibility that the Chinese government, famed for its control of internet communications in the country, could eavesdrop on calls. Zoom has now started offering paying customers the ability to opt out of having data routed through China or other regions.

While Zoom has developed measures or options to at least partly address all of the issues highlighted – and said it will freeze the development of new features for 90 days so it can focus on improving security – the litany of problems that have already been identified should provoke serious thought among its users. On top of this, Zoom’s privacy policy is arguably not user-friendly. By downloading the app, you essentially grant the company permission to do with your personal data whatever they want.

The problem for anyone looking for a more private system is that many of Zoom’s competitors have their own similar security issues. For example, Microsoft’s Skype and Teams services also use forms of encryption that give the company control over the keys.

Alternatives

So what are the alternatives? The most secure options are arguably those that use end-to-end encryption and are built with open-source code because it can be publicly reviewed to check it doesn’t have any hidden problems.

Signal is a messaging app that falls into this category and also provides video calling from smartphones, but not desktop video calls or video conferencing with multiple parties. Jitsi is also open source and provides end-to-end encrypted video calls via a web browser, and is working on doing the same for multi-party video conferencing.

If these options don’t suit you, then there are things you can do when using Zoom or other video calling services that have potential security issues to maximise your privacy and safety.

Enforce encryption by default and makes sure it’s end-to-end if possible
Lock and password-protect meetings
Unauthenticated users should be held in a waiting room so the organiser can check their identity before admitting them to the call
Make sure a meeting host monitors the participants list and ensures no unknown participant joins
Be careful with meeting recordings and get consent from the participants
Be aware that audio-only participants calling via a regular phone dial-in option will “break” the encryption
Be careful with file and screen-sharing capabilities. They could accidentally disclose sensitive information or be used to spread malicious programs.

In response to the issues raised in this article, a Zoom spokesperson said:

Zoom takes user privacy, security, and trust extremely seriously. Zoom was originally developed for enterprise use, and has been confidently selected for complete deployment by a large number of institutions globally, following security reviews of our user, network and datacenter layers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are working around-the-clock to ensure that businesses, schools, and other organizations across the world can stay connected and operational. As more and new kinds of users start using Zoom during this time, Zoom has been proactively engaging to make sure they understand Zoom’s relevant policies, as well as the best ways to use the platform and protect their meetings.

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Monday, July 27, 2020

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