Updated 4/10/2020

With more schools opting to shift instruction to remote delivery, there has been a surge in remote conferencing usage. With that surge has been a new phenomenon, Zoom Bombing. Zoom Bombing is the entry into a Zoom session by individuals who have not been invited and the unwanted sharing of screen content.

Zoom Bombing occurs when a link to a Zoom session with no password is shared publicly, often on social media or the host does not set a password and the “bomber” guesses the 9 digit meeting ID. There are ways to protect your sessions by careful attention to your settings. Zoom has written about how to protect your sessions from unwanted guests and unwanted content during your sessions. Zoom has posted a follow-up blog with best practices for securing your meetings.

It appears that GoToMeeting is also susceptible to this type of activity. The advice for GoToMeeting is similar to Zoom. Set a password for your meeting (there is a tab for setting a password in the meeting schedule window), use a unique meeting ID for each meeting or set of recurring meetings, lock the room once attendees have arrived to prevent other uninvited guests from entering the room, and ejecting uninvited guests if they somehow get into your session. More on GoToMeeting best practices can be found on their blog.

A couple of simple steps to protect your sessions is to post your links to Zoom or GoToMeeting sessions in Blackboard, not on any social media, and limit screen sharing to the session host. The blog posts linked above provide additional settings to protect your session.