Social-Media
Google Meet provides new zoombombing security for online courses.
Google is incorporating new security technology into its Google Meet video chat program for meetings organized by educational users, the organization reported. The updates that are set to take place in the next 15 days will mean that anonymous participants will not be allowed to attend meetings hosted by G Suite for Education or G Suite Enterprise for Education. The anonymous user is someone who has not signed up to a Google account, the firm claims.
The new features appear to be designed to prevent "zoombombing" where unauthorized users connect to and disrupt meetings by broadcasting shock videos or hurling insults.
ZDNet notes that as school lessons moved online due to the pandemic, some students shared links to their classrooms and asked pranksters to disrupt them in the hope that they would be allowed to leave early.
Google is not the only company that has had to deal with the problem. Zoom, where the term "zoombombing" comes from, has launched a range of new protection and privacy enhancements to try to increase protection to bring an end to the activity. For example, in its latest 5.0 upgrade, it has allowed users to easily lock meetings, delete attendees, and limit sharing, and has also made passwords accessible by default for most consumers to control who can enter their meetings.
In its announcement, Google states that new protection settings should be turned on by default for Education users, and that the only way to shut them off is to contact G Suite help directly.
