After everything that has recently occurred, closing down schools and switching to remote learning has seemed like the most reasonable option. By using Zoom this seemed like the most efficient way to continue teaching without having to do major adjustments. There would still be a feel of “traditional learning” due to the fact that the teacher can explain the content to students and answer questions they have in the moment. The only problem is whether or not this is the safest and most efficient option for learning.
As I was doing research on the topic, I came across an article from CNET about anonymous Instagram and Twitter accounts “zoomraiding’ or “zoombombing” video conferences/classes. It is very simple to raid rooms due to the fact that to enter a video conference all they would is the Zoom meeting code. Along with the security problems that this provides, the article mainly brings light to the harms of social media.
During class we have discussed the pros to social media and how it is starting to grow in today’s society. We went through the various pros and cons of social media and how it affects the world as we know it. Social media is mostly used to provide connections between people, spread news, advertise different businesses or services, post memes, and various other things. Sometimes though social media can be used in harmful ways. This article provides one way that social media is used in the wrong ways. On different social media apps, specifically Instagram and Twitter, many anonymous accounts are promoting that they will zoom bomb your conference. There doesn’t need to be a formal reason for the zoom raid either. It can be as simple as disliking your teacher. The account owners just ask for the zoom access code and then enter the conference and harass the class for as long as they please or until they are kicked out. The companies are beginning to scan through their apps and remove accounts and hashtags that have the purpose of zoom raiding but eliminating all of them is nearly impossible.
In order to solve a problem like this it is not only important for Zoom to review their security standards and improve their program. It is important for social media platforms to go over their content and make sure that it is being used for the proper purposes. Hypothetically, this could happen automatically but we do not live in a perfect world. Regardless though, that does not mean companies cannot routinely check their platforms and make sure these websites and apps comply to the standards they have supposedly set.
Sources: https://www.cnet.com/news/instagram-twitter-used-to-organize-harassment-campaigns-on-zoom/
This is very interesting and also very important to be aware of right now, especially because we are all using Zoom at Penn State. According to a TomsGuide article published 2 says ago, there are a lot more problems to zoom other than “zoom bombing” which is basically just going on other peoples zoom meetings. There is windows password stealing, Windows malware injection, iOS profile sharing, Phony end-to-end encryption, Malware-like behavior on Macs, A backdoor for Mac malware, Leaks of email addresses and profile photos, Sharing of personal data with advertisers. All of this means that Zoom is very susceptible to cyber attacks and it creates a huge attack surface according to Paul Wagenseil in the article. It is all very scary and makes me not feel comfortable using zoom for every class. I wish we would use Microsoft Teams or something like that which also offers video conferencing and it would be very easy since Penn State is a Microsoft campus.
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/zoom-security-privacy-woes
I agree with you and also want to point out that it is an amazing thing to be able to take college courses over Zoom. Zoom has been very successful so far by being able to teach us without physically being in a classroom or lecture room. Yes, there have been various issues with people not in the class joining and making a mockery of it, but the truth is that for Penn State I am paying $50,000 a year and for somebody to distract my professor from teaching me is not acceptable. Using Zoom, there are now ways to prevent this from happening since all it takes is to just give somebody else the password to join. The positives in this situation definitely outweigh the benefits for Zoom. For test and exam-taking, this is not the best-case scenario. Being that every exam is now online, kids are going to want to tend to cheat and that is not a good thing for anybody. They are not going to be learning anything, they are just going to want to get a good grade, not a good education. According to Psychreg, “The use of social media in education provides students with the ability to get more useful information, to connect with learning groups and other educational systems that make education convenient”(Psychreg). I believe Penn State and all other universities around the world are doing their best for this situation soon it will all be back to normal.