As clubs are having to use technology to communicate with members during the coronavirus lockdown, the risk of cyber attacks has increased.

There are several platforms available to use and it’s important that clubs consider all options and find the right one for their members and audience.

For example, if you are holding a meeting for club officials, Zoom might be the best option. However, if you are putting on a training session for your members, it might be worth considering recording it and uploading it to YouTube for them to watch.

Swim England and Swim England North West have been using Zoom to conduct a number of internal and external meetings.

To ensure these are secure and less vulnerable to cyber attacks, its important to follow the steps below. These handy tops also apply to other third party chat tools such as WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and Skype.

Don’ts

1. Never publish your meeting password on a public forum or website
2. Don’t click on any links that appear from a chat video. Get the participant to send any links via email.
3. You should not accept any files via messenger or meeting forum tools.
4. Don’t assume that all Zoom meeting invites/links are safe. Verify this with the person that has sent you the invite.
5. Never go to a meeting that doesn’t have a password.
6. Never give control of your screen to a third party.
7. Din’t accept any files from chat forums.

Do’s 

1. Always update the app wen prompted – don’t wait for later. The latest version for Zoom is 2nd April 2020. Version 4.6.9 (19253.0401)
2. Always set the meeting with a nine character password.
3. Treat Zoom/Zoom Chat like a work tool and maintain professionalism at all times.
4. Always lock the meeting once all known participants have arrived.
5. Remove unwanted participants and prevent them from re-joining the meeting.
6. Mute participants on entry of meetings.
7. Disable video on entry of meetings.
8. Enable waiting rooms to verify participants where possible.
9. Encourage the use of ‘Allow only signed in users to join’.

Swim England has developed some support videos for the utilisation of Zoom. The videos cover essential functions, how to navigate Zoom and how to use specific Zoom Features. Please click here to access the videos.

We hope you find this guidance useful and it enables you to stay safe online.