With the dramatic increase in telework and the associated use of collaboration tools due to COVID-19, there has been a surge in exploits against commonly used video conferencing systems. Known as “Zoombombing”, a name based on the most commonly exploited service, these attacks have grown to become a very real problem and as you may have heard in the news, they are exposing groups as diverse as city boards and elementary classrooms to pornographic and racist content. The problem is widespread enough the FBI has issued an official warning about insecurities in Zoom and the CEO of Zoom said in a recent blog post that they are ceasing work on new features to focus on fixing their privacy and security issues.
Many of Allied’s customers are using our AllCloud Collaborate service for multiparty collaboration, and you may be wondering if there are similar risks. I recently spoke with our Training Specialist, Jami Pryke, about common customer security concerns and how to address them as we all settle into the new remote work paradigm. Jami had the following suggestions:
With AllCloud Collaborate, there are three primary methods to control access to your My Room group collaboration space.
- Regenerate your My Room conference bridge ID, prohibiting uninvited guests from previous sessions from joining your conference bridge
- Require the My Room owner to be signed into the conference bridge before guests are able to join
- Enable the conference bridge to hang up if the room owner hangs up
These settings can be applied to your My Room via the AllCloud Connection portal. To enable these security options, sign into AllCloud Connection. From the left sidebar click “Service Settings.” Select “Collaborate-Audio”. Scroll to My Room and select the gear icon to edit your My Room settings. For increased security, your settings should look as follows:
Click the refresh button next to “Room ID” to regenerate your My Room conference bridge ID. Check the boxes for “Enable room session when owner departs” and “Owner required to start room session.”
An additional step you can take is to refresh your My Room guest join link. This can be done directly through AllCloud Communicator. To refresh your My Room guest join link, right click on the My Room icon. Select “Reset Guest Join Link.”
When you increase security by enabling these settings, there are some important things to keep in mind. First, regenerating your My Room bridge ID and/or your My Room guest join link will immediately change how guests will access your collaboration space. If you have meetings planned for the future that used an older conference bridge ID or guest join link in the invitation, you’ll need to provide the guests with the new information. Second, enabling “End room session when owner departs” and/or “Owner required to start room session” will require that the owner of the room call into the conference bridge from their extension. This can be done via their physical phone or through AllCloud Communicator. Third, we’re here to help. If you ever need any support, guidance, or assistance, please reach out to us.
