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Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

businessinsider.com

61–70 of 302 posts

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#61

This is a feature not a bug, to make joining meetings frictionless. (And in videoconferencing there's little distinction between meeting ID and password anyways -- they form a single access credential.) To prevent unwanted people from joining, the host simply has to turn on the waiting room feature -- where people who have dialed in have to be explicitly accepted by the host, which can be done individually or en mass…

You could have a second access code included in the invite but not printed right on the window in screenshots.

It would be similar to how a credit card number and CCV code are functionally the same as one longer number, except that you don’t go writing the CCV code alongside the credit card number, and that keeps it more secret.

Still not as frictionless as “anyone with the number can join,” but if this continues to be a problem it might be worth doing.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#62
post #15
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When your product goes from being "a videoconferencing tool used in some workplaces" to "the primary way people communicate and gather for personal or professional reasons", it makes sense that there will be a lot of stories about it (good, bad and neutral) in the press.

>"the primary way people communicate and gather for personal or professional reasons", I would be curious to see an article about why this happened? Is Zoom better than their countless competitors? They all seem pretty similar in my experience so why is it Zoom that is blowing up because of this and not any of the other companies?

it just works and works so well. especially for our use cases as virtual college classrooms.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#63
post #18
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe... maybe not. It sure is bringing about awareness though, isn't it?

Ahh yes, the old ends justifying the means.

I too am much happier when Chinese/Russian/French spies quietly infiltrate a presentation on power grid weak points from a mid sized private firm with no security to speak of.

Trolling is gods way of teaching basic opsec to idiots.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#64
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and (in my experience) it displays it at the top of the screen!

no, but it gives the host the link to share WITH the password, so people sharing the link also share the password (encoded)

Ah, I suspected it was something like that.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#66
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not going to defend a bunch of trolls, if that's what you're implying. However, if we don't secure our systems, what do we expect? If there were no bad-actors in the world, people like tptacek would be out of work. What a glorious world it would be, no need for locked doors, fences, passwords, pin codes and more - but that's not the world we live in. Instead, we're in a world where Zoom has laughable security for bar…

I hope you're wearing a hard hat at all times; if not - then it's your fault when complete stranger smashes you with a brick. Who you will be mad at after that ?

On the other hand, when I get smashed with a brick and the hard hat I'm wearing crumples like a paper bag I guess I'm still a little mad at the hard hat company?

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#67
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4chan

I should have phrased that differently. I know it's largely parts of the 4chan crowd. But who are those boards? Why are the people who go there so nuts? Do you ever wonder if you've unknowingly met these people in real life? Chances are we all have, right? How do they manage to be so terrible and then go on with their lives?

I recently finished reading We Are the Nerds, which is about the history of Reddit (the company) and its community. One of the interesting parts was about the moderator of a bunch of subreddits that were full of all kinds of borderline illegal and definitely illegal content (u/violentacrez, if you feel the need to Google for yourself).

If you're a long-time Reddit user, you probably already know this, but here goes: He was eventually exposed by a journalist. Surprisingly, he is actually a pretty normal middle-aged man. He worked as a programmer (and was immediately fired when the news aired). He has a disabled wife for whom he is the sole financial support. If I remember correctly, he has adult children, who were aware of what he did on Reddit and had usernames that referenced their relationship with him. Apparently, he used his time on Reddit as a way to relieve stress, or something like that.

I'm not entirely certain what motivates people to act like that online when they're relatively normal offline, but it seems to be a somewhat common occurrence.

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#68
post #20

https://mobile.twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1244985949534... Yes, shared by the Prime Minister, number and all. What a time to be alive.

That's not the only security leak in that photo.

On a couple of pictures you can see balcony doors, house layouts, ceilings, vents, etc, doors. Every now and then CNN shares photos of the houses of rich and famous. They must be taking them from some magazine. Anyway, I remember looking at Cara Delevingne's amazing home, and I noticed that apart from walls with decorations, furniture, bathtub, etc there was NO view of doors, windows, balcony doors. Basically anything that would give away the location of the rooms (e.g. photo of bedroom with trees outside that would help identify floor and where in the building that room is). I am sure that these people have far more important things (documents) in their homes than Cara (but far worse taste).

Re: Trolls break into meetings on Zoom

#69
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not going to defend a bunch of trolls, if that's what you're implying. However, if we don't secure our systems, what do we expect? If there were no bad-actors in the world, people like tptacek would be out of work. What a glorious world it would be, no need for locked doors, fences, passwords, pin codes and more - but that's not the world we live in. Instead, we're in a world where Zoom has laughable security for bar…

I hope you're wearing a hard hat at all times; if not - then it's your fault when complete stranger smashes you with a brick. Who you will be mad at after that ?

When you walk into a crocodile pit do we blame the crocodiles for eating you?
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