CyberSecurity and Online Privacy on the Internet and Zoom in times of COVID-19 Lockdown | LightSpeedAC

Cybersecurity and Online Privacy in the Times of COVID-19 Lockdown

In these disastrous times of COVID-19 Lockdown, most of us are forced to stay indoors and, as a result, are forced to work from home or study from home online. To all of us, privacy and cybersecurity when online is very essential as we might be storing a lot of confidential information on our devices. We might be having passwords of social media accounts, and many might have their banking information stored. This is the perfect time for sneaky hacker organizations to steal information and other fishy things in which they have expertise. To avoid falling into such traps, we at LightSpeedAC have listed some basic yet efficient things that will make you extremely secure on the Internet in such times and protect you from hackers and spammers. 

Avoid giving out your Email-ID and Signing Up for Websites

With the new trends, such as making some Dalgona Coffee at home or painting some easy paintings, and with a lot of free time in hand, all of us might be visiting a lot of websites to get recipes and check out new trends. One thing we might have noticed is that almost all of these websites ask for your Email-ID for either their newsletters or other reasons.

You should strictly avoid giving out your Email-ID to such websites. The reason behind this is that these websites might send a lot of Spam Messages or Repetitive Messages that will fill up your Inbox in no time. Also, this has another significant reason. Your data can be sold online. Yes, you read it right. Sadly, there is a big market for the sale of such data for real-life money. You must have understood now why you should not never give your Email-ID.

Precautions to be taken while using Video-Conferencing Softwares (Zoom, Skype, etc.)

You might have seen the recent headlines of the newly-popular Zoom Application being unsafe for use and might have seen allegations of data-stealing on the application. 

The developers of the video-conferencing application came up with an update in no time and now claim, the issues have been fixed. However, that's partially untrue. The users have to be perfect in their practices to be 100% safe. Hackers always find ways to tweak the system and, eventually, do the damage. 

To be extremely honest, such applications come and go. We, as the users have to perfect in our practices to prevent scams, privacy infringement, and data-stealing.

Here are some of the precautions you must take to be perfectly safe on the Internet.

1. Be aware of links. 

Whenever you join meetings/webinars on video-conferencing applications, you might have noticed that most of the people send you URLs (Universal Resource Locators). To join the meeting, you need to click on the URL. 

Avoid clicking on such URLs. Any such URL(https//:zoom.us/ followed by a long string of numbers) you receive and send can be a possible phishing scam. This is the oldest trick in the books of scammers. 

Prefer sending the Meeting-ID and the Password. And if you are doing it as a business, leave a personal note. Always tell your friends/customers not to share the Meeting-ID and Password with anyone. 

2. Adjust your Screen Sharing Options immediately!

This is the biggest mistake most of the people make and end up as victims of 'Zoom Bombing'. On the general Zoom settings app window, there is an option for screen sharing. Click it and select Advanced settings. Choose then to only let the Host share the screen. And now, your major privacy issue has been solved. 

This will end all significant disruptions that can be made by uninvited attendees to your meeting.

3. Always use Waiting Rooms.!

Just like the last one, this is another prominent feature that almost all users fail to use and, eventually, suffer. 

The Waiting Room feature of the Zoom Application allows you to basically prescreen the user who is trying to get into your meeting before allowing them to enter. 

This feature is a little hidden. To get there, go to your master account settings (under "My Account" at the top right of the main screen), click Settings, go to the Meetings tab, and scroll to the bottom, where you will find the Waiting Room options. Once enabled, this will be the default on all your meetings. 

 4. Prefer Webinars over Meetings. 

Webinars, as compared to meetings, have much less participation. As a result of which, you will be safer and lesser in danger of Zoom Bombings and Hackings. 

So, whenever possible, create webinars instead of meetings.

If you follow all of these things, you will most certainly be safer on the Internet.

If we as users will be better users, such scams and hacking will decrease!

 Stay safe! 

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