Publically Advertised Zoom Mtg was bombed on Saturday

[ZoomMtgBombed]

On Saturday, February 12th  I attempted to conduct a public workshop on Citrus Tree Care which was advertised on Facebook.  Seven minutes into the session, our Zoom meeting got bombed by 4 or 5 intruders who maliciously took over our meeting with loud music, profanity, and lewd drawings on our PowerPoint.  They were not given co-host access.  Earlier in the morning, I received an email from Zoom informing me (I am the account holder for the Zoom Pro account) that I should secure our link with a password (already done), waiting room (already done), and require attendees to register for the meeting (requires Zoom Webinar plan).   I did not hoave time to upgrade my account and re-advertise  with a new link and register interested people.

We are a non profit, educational organization and can not afford to upgrade from Zoom Pro to Zoom Webinar.  What is Zoom doing to prevent such intruders in the future?  We advertise our virtual workshops on Facebook, newspaper and our website with no registration required.

[Alex_PFT]

When doing public events there is a lot you can do to secure your meetings. You should disable annotations, disable sharing permission for participants (only host and co-hosts can share), automatically mute participants when they join, etc, etc. 

In-meeting security options – Zoom Support

And the registration option is not only for webinars, you can schedule a meeting with registration:

Scheduling a meeting with registration – Zoom Support

[brianmusic]

You ask what zoom is doing to  prevent such incidents. One thing is for sure: zoom don’t support members who try to help re zoombombing. I managed to earn an 1132 error on my account whilst trying to chase zoombombers out of meetings. If and when I finally get my licensed account back, I won’t be bothering to catch bombers again. It’s just too much hassle trying to get anywhere with zoom support.

[ZoomMtgBombed]

I have changed my future publically advertized meetings to require the participants to register for the event.  Hopefully the bully's that are bombing informative presentations aren't clever enough to re-program with this option.  I'll find out in a few weeks, then update my post.

[brianmusic]

Is registering not simply a matter of logging in with a false email address? If that is the case, the bombers will simply log in using false details. I’ve seen this happen, and as someone who has made it a mission to chase bombers, I’ve had to do it myself on occasion. 
FYI, public zoom meeting info is shared on twitter by a hard core of  bombers, using the hashtag  #zoomcodes. Constant reporting of these bombers to twitter result in no action ever being taken…..isn’t it strange that good folk  who try to break down bombers get no support from the very organisations who actually help cause the problem??

Good luck with your meetings.

[Alex_PFT]

You are right. If your not filtering every inscription, registrations is just another step. The real solution is in-meeting security options (lock screen sharing, disable annotations, e.t.c..)

[brianmusic]

Robbie sounds like he’s proud to be trashing AA and NA meetings, church, community and support groups, and funerals…….a really nice person….