There has recently been some media coverage on security issues related to the Zoom service. The University of Helsinki and CSC have both responded to these concerns, and Zoom has announced that the company is working hard to guarantee the information security of its service. We at the University of Helsinki can use Zoom safely and securely if we remember to follow good information security practices.
There have been indications that Zoom meetings can be invaded by uninvited Internet trolls who use the Tor anonymity network to guess Zoom’s randomly generated nine-digit meeting IDs. It may be impossible to guard yourself against this kind of ‘Zoombombing’ harassment completely, even if you do everything correctly.
- To prevent ‘Zoombombing’, we have added a mandatory password to all University of Helsinki Zoom meetings. This password is generated automatically for all new Zoom meeting invitations, and is attached to all meeting invitation links by default.
- You do not need to do anything because of the change, and it should not affect the use of Zoom in any way.
- The purpose of the change is to increase the randomness of meeting invitation links, making it harder to guess the links to real meeting rooms by repeated tries. It should now be impossible for uninvited Internet trolls to guess the correct link of any university Zoom meeting rooms.
- You may revert back to the earlier setting, but this is not recommended.
How well has Zoom worked? Take the survey!
We would greatly appreciate your opinion on Zoom, how well it has worked and how it could be improved. We would also like to hear if there are any needs that Zoom does not currently meet.
Please take this short survey on the use of Zoom at the University of Helsinki. Taking the survey should take 10–15 minutes at most. If possible, please take the survey by 27 April and help us improve university video conferencing services!
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