Beware Zoom bombing

In a matter of weeks, Zoom has become the go-to virtual meeting application for millions of people around the world. The accessible interface makes it very easy to hold virtual meetings with one or many colleagues. At the same time, many have found Zoom’s default privacy and security features lacking, frequently exposing users to embarrassing interruptions. This increasingly common issue is known as Zoom bombing, and it happens when trolls discover or guess the Zoom meeting’s unique 9-digit id.

There are ways to protect your meetings from Trolls. You could set a password, or in the advanced options choose Enable Waiting Room, which puts people on hold before you give them approval to join. But even with those precautions in place, you’re still not completely protected against unwanted guests.

Not safe as houses

When someone invites you to join them on the Houseparty app, do you read the end-user license agreement? We think you should.

Houseparty gained lots of media attention for all the wrong reasons at the start of April. Messages began circulating on social media saying the app was hacking users’ Spotify and Deliveroo accounts, and, more alarmingly, their bank accounts.

At this point, there’s no evidence that Houseparty is malicious. But privacy is another issue. Researchers have raised concerns around whether the app follows user data protection under GDPR. For instance, video chats aren’t encrypted, and Houseparty’s privacy terms make it clear that it can take anything from these chats to use for marketing or advertising.

BYOD issues

Giving your employees the freedom to work from any device and any location is always a good idea, not just during a crisis. But bear in mind the shared nature of mobile devices. When your employees work from personal devices, and access corporate data, the health of the device must be considered. Does it comply with corporate security and risk policies.

Your employees are probably using their mobile devices to access social media or other sensitive sites, and some employees will regularly hand their device to their children to distract them. But kids are tech-savvy, especially when it comes to downloading and installing applications onto these devices, some of which could be unauthorised or unsafe.

If your employees are set up to use their mobile devices for work, you need to make sure those devices are not running outdated and vulnerable operating systems or apps, and that unauthorised software is not installed, as they can put the security of the device and your corporate data at risk.

Appurity and Lookout App Security Assessment

Our App Security Assessment offers a comprehensive app analysis by our elite mobile security research team, paired with app insights from Lookout’s corpus of over 70 million analysed apps.

We review all dimensions of app risk including code construction, permissions, behaviour, malware, network traffic, vulnerabilities, and prevalence.

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