Zoom in Schools

[smarties11]

Hi All,

 

During the early stages of lockdown, both the government and GCHQ informed the public sector not to use Zoom due to the security holes in the product. We weren't using Zoom for anything, but at this point I actively blocked it on our web filter and advised anyone wanting to use it to use Teams instead.

 

I know that Zoom worked hard to address these security holes, but I've not seen any updated guidance on this.

 

We're getting more and more requests from staff to use Zoom in School, usually for staff training but sometimes also from external agencies. For the latter we tend to use Teams and set the meeting up from our end, but for the former we don't really have much choice if we want to participate in the training! I'm guessing the reason why Zoom is popular for this is because they can use the free version? I have no major concerns about this use case, since staff training is usually generic with no personal content relating to individuals.

 

I was wondering if anyone had come across any updated guidance on this? I've done a quick google and can't find anything official beyond 2020.

 

Thanks!

[carlin_w]

We make use of Zoom for the occasional online meeting, but wherever possible I steer people towards Teams. We have the Microsoft licenses, so see no reason to use Zoom.

Like yourself, external agencies often lean towards Zoom - it's the only real reason it still exists on our systems.

 

While no official guidance has been published from my searches, it seems a lot of the security issues have been resolved.

See these interesting articles from TechTarget: How secure is Zoom video conferencing? (techtarget.com) and Toms Guide: Zoom security issues: What's gone wrong and what's been fixed | Tom's Guide (tomsguide.com) both published this year.

 

I think the base of it is - it's safe to use generally, but I'd be wary if discussing any confidential details.

 

NB: Also, since 30th June 2022 Zoom has put back the 40-minute time limit for meetings for educational institutions - another reason I advise staff to use Teams.

[dhicks]

I was wondering if anyone had come across any updated guidance on this?

 

You could try asking Zoom themselves. We had someone from Zoom turn up on the forum a couple of years ago (checks dates - 13th October 2010 - exactly two years ago!):

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/218045-zoom-education.html

 

In that thread I don't think we got much further than confiming that yes, the person posting was the UK education lead for Zoom in the UK and that meant he lead education for Zoom in the UK.

[jthompson]

Our staff get invited by external contacts to join Zoom meetings all the time. It's one of a handful of different video conferencing platforms that workers receive invitations to these days. It seems like a total non-starter to say "we're not going to let you join any Zoom meetings". That puts staff in an absurd position.

[Oaktech]

We don't encourage Zoom as we have both Teams and Google Meet licensed, but the number of external agencies using it means that banning it outright is a non starter.

[TechMonkey]

Same as others, we mandate Teams use for the organisation but don't block Zoom for connecting to external orgs. We don't push the client out, instead advise to use the web interface.

[DrCheese]

We mandate Teams - But I do push the zoom client out as it makes life easier when dealing with external organisations.

[jthompson]

We've added the app to the list of published apps that staff can install for themselves from add/remove programs. The few people who need or prefer to have it can then have it without it sitting there in everyone's Start menu.

[psydii]

If people ask nicely (i.e. the 3rd party refuses to use Teams) we allow that member of staff to install Zoom. Lots and Lots of members of staff can now install zoom.

 

 

FWIW Teams has had almost all of the same remote code execution problems that Zoom has.

[smarties11]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm inclined to allow our staff to use it for training events but continue to mandate Teams for meetings. I was just hoping that there might have been some updated guidance somewhere to that effect from GOV.UK. I'd hate to be in a position of vulnerability with this, where our cyber insurance was saying we had gone against the most recently published advice on using it in a public sector environment!

[speakercon]

Has anyone else found the web version of Zoom to cause poor video/audio quallity?

[colly72]

We used Zoom throughout lockdown, paying for the Education version which gives granular control over security. Granted, it was criticised at the start of lockdown but since then, there have been many improvements and I'd argue the security is now pretty strong, at least with the paid education version.

[GrumbleDook]

You could try asking Zoom themselves. We had someone from Zoom turn up on the forum a couple of years ago (checks dates - 13th October 2010 - exactly two years ago!):

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/218045-zoom-education.html

 

In that thread I don't think we got much further than confiming that yes, the person posting was the UK education lead for Zoom in the UK and that meant he lead education for Zoom in the UK.

 

It got a lot further than that. It got additional feedback that went into DPIAs, it also increased UK Zoom knowledge of conversations that had already been had over GDPR (and had already improved things from Zoom), as well as clarified some of the stumbling blocks that all schools face when reviewing options for VC/remote learning tools.

 

This was followed up earlier this year with a really good round table session too.