Swim England have produced a handy guide to staying safe while using Zoom and other third party chat tools.
As clubs are having to use technology to communicate with members during the coronavirus lockdown, the risk of cyber attacks has increased.
There are several platforms available to use and it’s important you find the right one for your audience.
For example, if you’re holding a meeting for club officials, Zoom might be your best bet. However, if you’re putting on a training session for your members, it might be best to record it and upload to YouTube for them to watch.
Swim England has been using Zoom to conduct internal and external meetings.
To ensure these are secure and less vulnerable to cyber attacks, it’s important to follow the below steps. By doing so, you should be safe to still use Zoom.
These handy tips also apply to other third party chat tools such as WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and Skype.
Don’ts
- Never publish your meeting password on a public forum/website.
- Don’t click on any links that appear from a chat video. Get the participant to send this via email.
- You should not accept any files via messenger or meeting forum tools.
- Don’t assume that all Zoom meeting invites/links are safe. Verify this with the person that has sent you the invite.
- Never go to a meeting that doesn’t have a password.
- Never give control of your screen to a third party.
- Don’t accept any files from chat forums.
Do’s
- Always update the app when prompted – don’t wait for later. The latest version is April 2, 2020 Version 4.6.9 (19253.0401).
- Always set up the meeting with a nine character password.
- Treat Zoom/Zoom Chat like a work tool and maintain professionalism at all times.
- Always lock the meeting room once all known participants have arrived.
- Remove unwanted participants and prevent them from re-joining the meeting
- Mute participants on entry of meetings.
- Disable video on entry of meetings
- Enable waiting rooms to verify participants where possible.
- Encourage the use of “Allow only signed-in users to join”.
Swim England has developed some support videos for the utilisation of Zoom. The videos cover essential functions, how to navigate Zoom and how to use specific Zoom features. Click here to access the videos.
