ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It's a company you might not have heard of before the COVID-19 pandemic but now, many of us are using the sort of software that allows people into our homes virtually.
If you didn't hear of it before, you do now: Zoom.
"Once the whole COVID-19 took over, organizations scrambled to get video conferencing capabilities," Cyber Security Expert James McQuiggan said. "Zoom leaped to the forefront, and like any product that leaps to the forefront, the hackers come out of the woodwork and start attacking.
"Zoom comes under fire, there’s vulnerabilities discovered, issues with the way the encryption is done, how easy it is to get connected, in essence the term 'zoom bombing' comes into effect because you have people jumping into these conversations that weren’t supposed to be there."
The most recent instance hit close to home, when USF Police said they were investigating a Zoom call at the university with prospective students that was hijacked with "disturbing" images Monday.
McQuiggan says Zoom has been quick to fix problems and have added security features. Some features you can use when you're setting up a Zoom meeting includes password protecting your meeting. If it’s within your organization, you can set it up so only people with your business or organization’s email can get in the meeting.
You can also set up a waiting room, so you have to allow people into the meeting. Another new feature added at the beginning of May allows you to lock the meeting. Admin also have the ability to disable screensharing and mute people.
"There are people discovering new vulnerabilities, but Zoom is fixing them very quickly," he said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Zoom said in part, “We have been deeply upset to hear about these types of incidents. Zoom strongly condemns such behavior and recently updated several features to help our users more easily protect their meetings."
They went on to say, "We are committed to maintaining an equal, respectful and inclusive online environment for all our users regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, disability or genetics.
"We encourage users to report any incidents of this kind either to Zoom so we can take appropriate action or directly to law enforcement authorities."
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