FTC ZOOM Settlement, ZOOM Bombing and More

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HERE IS HOW

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a settlement with ZOOM to resolve allegations that the company engaged in misleading security practices. The use of the videoconferencing platform rocketed during the early days of the pandemic, particularly in the healthcare industry. The FTC announcement stated:

Zoom has agreed to a requirement to establish and implement a comprehensive security program, a prohibition on privacy and security misrepresentations, and other detailed and specific relief to protect its user base, which has skyrocketed from 10 million in December 2019 to 300 million in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its complaint, the FTC alleged that, since at least 2016, Zoom misled users by touting that it offered “end-to-end, 256-bit encryption” to secure users’ communications, when in fact it provided a lower level of security. End-to-end encryption is a method of securing communications so that only the sender and recipient(s)—and no other person, not even the platform provider—can read the content.

Are You Using ZOOM?

ZOOM offers several different types of video platforms. If you are a healthcare professional, be sure to only use ZOOM for Healthcare and download their Business Associate Agreement (BAA). If you are not aware of the BAA rules regarding the document that you are legally obligated to get from all your technology vendors if you provide services to US citizens, you may want to review your legal obligations in one or both of these Telehealth.org digital training programs,  Basic Telehealth Legal Issues: Rules, Regulations & Risk Management and/or Advanced Telehealth Legal Issues: Best Practices & Informed Consent.

ZOOM Bombing

ZOOM made the headlines in March of 2020 when Newsweek reported that the FBI warned the public of the potential for “ZOOM bombing.” The FBI report involved two Massachusetts schools that had classes hijacked online. A “ZOOM bombing,” “ZOOM raiding” or “ZOOM hijacking” is said to occur when someone uses a vulnerability in the software to intrude into a video conference session.

Since then, the term “ZOOM bombing” has taken a whole new dimension with the addition of lewd, racist, homophobic, or antisemitic slurs which then lead to a shutdown of the session in an attempt to stop the intruder. The FBI also warned of companies posing to be ZOOM and offering potentially dangerous links to people.

1. Each ZOOM user has a personal meeting ID—think of it as your Zoom phone number.  Never use your personal meeting ID. Always use a meeting password.
   Use ZOOM’s waiting room feature.
2. Mute audio and disable video for meeting attendees as they enter. This gives you the opportunity to see who enters before they can interject their voice or presence.
3. Turn off screen sharing for everyone except the meeting host/co-host.

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