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Stock in Zoom plummeted Monday morning as concerns continued to surface about hacking of the networking platform.
The Jamestown Public Schools District, several area churches and other organizations are using the platform to communicate during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the FBI, in March a Massachusetts high school reported that while a teacher was conducting an online class using Zoom, an unidentified individual(s) dialed into the classroom. This individual yelled a profanity and then shouted the teacher's home address in the middle of instruction. A second Massachusetts school reported a Zoom meeting being accessed by an unidentified individual. In this incident, the individual was visible on the video camera and displayed swastika tattoos.
Jamestown Public School officials continue to use Zoom, though Dr. Bret Apthorpe, district superintendent, said Zoom's license with BOCES includes user privacy protections.
"Zoom bombing is a new word for me," Apthorpe said recently in a Facebook Live question-and-answer session. "It's a good question. As I understand it, there is Zoom for everybody in the world to use that's free. We have a license to use Zoom through our local BOCES. The reason we secured the license with our local BOCES is there's a new law called 2D, that's what it's called, it's referred to as 2D. It says that schools can only use software programs that protect the privacy of the students. The zoom license with BOCES is 2D compliant, as long as the Zoom meeting is occurring through our school district, we're told that has been protected."
The FBI has also released tips in the last week in response to increases in video-teleconference hacking of platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, including:
¯ Do not make meetings or classrooms public. In Zoom, there are two options to make a meeting private: require a meeting password or use the waiting room feature and control the admittance of guests.
¯ Do not share a link to a teleconference or classroom on an unrestricted publicly available social media post. Provide the link directly to specific people.
¯ Manage screensharing options. In Zoom, change screensharing to "Host Only."
¯ Ensure users are using the updated version of remote access/meeting applications. In January 2020, Zoom updated its software. In the security update, the teleconference software provider added passwords by default for meetings and disabled the ability to randomly scan for meetings to join.
¯ Ensure that an organization's telework policy or guide addresses requirements for physical and information security.