Securing Online Classes

I recently got asked a question - with Zoom providing end-to-end encryption, is there anything else that is required to be done from the viewpoint of security ? 

And that set off a long discussion. Which has lead to this blog post. 

tl;dr : Yes ! 

The longer answer:

There are 2 parts to ensuring that School From Home is safe. 

1. The technology that we can use
2. The behavioral changes

1. Technology

Lets take the current question where it all began. It is about the popular Zoom video conferencing software, which has really taken off during this pandemic. Initially Zoom was not going to provide encrypted calls for the free use. However, they changed that for all users - free or paid. 

So, first step - look at if the applications being used for the classes are having encryption. If not, flag that with the school authorities. 

But that is not the end of it all. It is usual for the teachers and kids to share links - be it for online videos of the subject, or links to assignments or maybe kids sharing some other link. These links could be malicious. And the way to get around this is to use an antivirus program. e.g. the one from McAfee (you can get a free trial here ) If you are already using some other AV program, you should check out its effectiveness on AV Comparatives , a third party site which tests various AV software for both the laptops and the phones. Full Disclosure - as of the writing of this post, I work in McAfee. 

The antivirus protects against links which are malicious, any files which get downloaded which may have viruses, or even seemingly legit apps which have some trojans or keyloggers in it. 

Going another step ahead, you can also install a parental controls product ( E.g. the McAfee Safe Family ). These product can help you limit what stuff the kids can access on their devices. They also allow you to get notifications for activities that your kids do online, block access to apps on the mobile etc. 

Finally, take care of the passwords. You should not be using the same password everywhere. It is also impossible to keep thinking about and remembering different passwords for all the different websites. There are some good password management tools that you can get to be able to generate passwords - a different one for each site. Nowadays even browsers like chrome and firefox provide a way to generate passwords which are not easy to crack. Use them. 

All this is the automation part. And that is only half the work. 

2. Behavioral

Technology is great as it automates all the boring stuff. But there are some things it cannot catch for which we have to update our behaviors. If you click on every link that is being sent your way without thinking about who is sending it - you are going to get into trouble sometime or later. 

Kids are smarter than parents tend to believe. I have found it really useful to educate my son on the dos and don'ts of being online. The most basic ones are:

• Do you know the person in real life ? If not, be wary of what they are chatting with you about. It could be a scam. 
• For any online activity ( e.g. my son loves to play Roblox) have an online identity which is different from the real world identity. Kids are really creative in coming up with names for their online personas. 
• Do not give any details online which can help the person track you to your house. e.g if they ask where do you live, just say your country. If they insist on anything more, contact me (as a parent) to see what is being asked. So far this has worked really well. My son shows me links / questions that people are asking online. I take the time to explain what is ok and what is not, and then he takes over from there. I am getting pleasantly surprised when my son sometimes shows me links/asks and says - "This is so obviously a scam" ! 
• The side effect of the kids understanding about the online behavior is also that they share it with their friends and in turn educating them also. 
• Put on a background for all your zoom calls. The purpose of this is so that others do not see what is in your home - its my personal privacy issue. My son came up one day to tell me that his music teacher has said not to put in the background. I told him to tell his teacher that if there is an issue , then he needs to talk to me. Kids need to know you have got their back. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on what you think. Do you have more tips for making this whole School From Home thing more secure ? Let me know in the comments below or reach out to me on twitter @vibhurishi 

Additional helpful links: 

• Interland - An initiative by Google to help kids figure out whats safe in an online world. Thanks to my friend @free_rider for the tip.
• HaveIBeenPwned : A quick way to check in which breaches you have had your information leaked. As its said - There are 2 types of people : 1. Those who know they have been hacked, and 2. Those who don't know they have been hacked.