Florida's Attorney General Ashley Moody is warning of ‘ZoomBombing’ during COVID-19 crisis
Florida's Attorney General Ashley Moody is warning Floridians about the dangers of ZoomBombing. .
In a statement released yesterday (4/6/20) Moody said, “Zoombombing occurs when hackers hijack internet video conferences, like those offered by the fast-growing platform Zoom.”
“These hackers often present inappropriate, offensive material or otherwise disrupt the conference,” Moody said.
“To practice social distancing while we continue to operate, my staff and I, like so many other agencies and businesses, are using technology to hold important meetings. My son, just like most students in Florida, is also participating in Zoom virtual learning with his teachers and classmates. So, I want Floridians to be aware that these meetings can be hijacked by hackers, but thankfully, there are some steps you can take to increase privacy and prevent Zoombombing.”
The Attorney General also said that children are also vulnerable to this hack as students throughout the state have switched to online classes due to the coronavirus crisis.
What can you do?
Increase privacy and guard against "ZoomBombing":
- Create separate passwords for each virtual meeting;
- Establish a Zoom waiting room for meeting participants;
- Lock down the meeting once everyone invited to attend has joined; and
- Do not publicly post meeting links on social media or any other public forum.
Zoom also offers privacy settings to provide hosts an additional level of protection.
To enable the extra security features, hosts should click on the settings menu, scroll down to “screen sharing,” find “who can share?” Then click on “host only.”
Also, the user should save the changes. After saving the new preferences, subsequent meetings should enact these enhanced privacy features by default.
For more virtual meeting security tips from ZOOM, click here.
if you or Anyone you know, believes they are the victim of hacking or a COVID-19 related scam should contact the Florida Attorney General’s Office at 1-(866) 9-NO-SCAM or online at: MyFloridaLegal.com.