Catholic Education, Diocese of Cairns

Queensland, Australia

(07) 4050 9700
  • Home
  • About
    • Catholic Education in the Cairns Diocese
    • The Catholic School Difference
    • History
    • Bishop’s Message
    • Executive Director’s Welcome
    • Reconciliation
    • Vision, Logo and Motto
    • Strategic Directions
    • Church Structure and Governance
    • Catholic Education Services
    • Funding
    • Policies, Directives and Guidelines
    • Modern Slavery Statement
    • Conduct, Complaints & Grievances
    • Safeguarding Children
    • Links
  • Our Schools
    • Search Catholic Schools in the Cairns Region
    • Newman Catholic College
    • Outside School Hours Care
    • 2021 School Annual Reports
  • Enrolling
    • Mythbusting FAQs
    • Who can Enrol?
    • Apply to Enrol
    • Fees and Discounts
    • Starting Prep
    • Early Learning & Care
  • Your Education
    • Religious Education
    • Curriculum
    • Contemporary Learning
    • Assessment and Reporting
    • Languages
    • Vocational Education & Training (VET)
    • Diverse Learners
      • Enrolment Support and Transitions
      • Students with Disability – Education Adjustment Program
      • Planning for Students
      • Specialist & Support Services
        • Cairns Catholic and Independent Schools Therapy (ACCIST)
      • Therapy and Disability Awareness
      • Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD)
      • Gifted and Talented
      • English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D)
    • International Education
    • First Nations Peoples
    • Resource Centre
    • Continuity of Learning
  • Our School Communities
    • School Boards and P&F Executives
      • Constitutions
      • Formation Readings
      • The modern Catholic school
      • Formation Videos
      • Code of Ethics
      • Templates
      • Grants
      • Prayers for Meetings
    • Information for Parents
      • Term Dates and Pupil-Free Days
      • Scholarships and Bursaries
      • School Transport Assistance
      • Student Care Insurance
    • The Reading Room
      • Raise Magazine
      • Links to best practice in parent engagement
      • Student Health and Wellbeing
        • A modern Catholic guide to the mass media
      • Ideas for the modern Catholic school
      • Inclusive Education
    • Parent Engagement
      • Parent Involvement at School
      • School boards and P&Fs
      • Parent engagement in student learning at home
      • Getting ready for Prep
      • Volunteer Training
    • Catholic Faith Perspectives
      • The modern Catholic school and religious education
      • Information for non-Catholics
      • Reflections on Faith and the Catholic School
        • Readings and commentary
        • Prayers and Reflections
          • Prayers and Reflections 2021
          • Prayers and Reflections 2020
        • Pope Francis
    • Education Updates
  • Careers
  • News & Events
    • Media & Communications
    • Critical Incidents & School Closures
    • Coronavirus COVID-19
      • Coronavirus COVID-19 Archived Updates and Advices
      • Coronavirus COVID-19 Resources
    • Raise Magazine
    • Latest News
    • Catholic Education Week
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Details
    • How to make a complaint
Home > Latest News > coronavirus > Cairns Catholic schools across Zoom issue
post

Cairns Catholic schools across Zoom issue

28/04/2020 By Stephanie Meekings

Cairns Catholic Education is aware of the issues in a southern Catholic school involving ‘Zoom bombing’ and had worked with its service provider prior to the start of online learning to enhance security protocols.

Zoom is one of the video conferencing apps used by Cairns Catholic schools for home learning, along with Google Hangouts Meet and Microsoft Teams.

Staff hosting zoom meetings with students have been updated on further security measures and how to apply them to reduce the risk unauthorised access.

No instances of unauthorised access have been reported in the Cairns Diocese.

“This is an issue we take very seriously, and we will continue to monitor our use of Zoom to ensure it is used responsibly,” Executive Director, Bill Dixon said.

Further information:

‘Zoom bombing’, where random, uninvited participants join a zoom meeting is particularly prevalent with the free version of Zoom and happens when the link and password for a meeting is shared on social media (like Reddit or Facebook), usually by a student.

The professional, paid for version of Zoom used by Cairns Catholic Education allows us to default a range of security settings to assist with preventing ‘Zoom Bombing’, On 1 April, prior to the start of online education delivery, CCE’s service provider, CENet made a range of security setting changes to CCE Zoom accounts to mitigate the risk of ’Zoom Bombing’.

Account setting modifications included disabling features such as host video on entry, participant video on entry, join before host, use of personal meeting ID when scheduling, use of personal meeting ID when starting an instant meeting, private 1:1 chat, file transfer, and annotation. Screen sharing is allowed by managed by the meeting host only.

The waiting room feature, disabled by default, has been enabled so that those attempting to join the meeting are screened first by the teacher before being ‘admitted’ and allowed to join.

CES Executive Director, Bill Dixon said the Cairns CES IT Department had already implemented other measures recommended by CENet in early April. These included managed student email domains to ensure students were not free to sign up to a zoom account using their school email address or access Zoom’s ‘free’ basic service from their school account. This measure has enabled tighter control and access management to the platform. Enabling ‘managed’ student access to Zoom also provides opportunities to further enhance meeting security, for example, to only allow authenticated meeting participants who hold a diocese staff/student email address.

Advice has been provided to all staff to use the ‘lock meeting’ feature after all students have been admitted and the meeting has commenced, which reduces the risk of anyone joining the meeting even if they have been given the link and password.

He said he had confidence in the tight security measures implemented by Cairns Catholic Education and that parents could also.

“The safety and security of our students, whether in the classroom or online, is and always has been our highest priority,” Mr Dixon said.

Back

Filed Under: coronavirus

Policies Safeguarding Children Conduct, Complaints & Grievances

Enrolling

  • The Catholic School Difference
  • Our Schools
  • Search Catholic Schools in the Cairns Region
  • Who can Enrol?
  • Apply to Enrol
  • Fees and Discounts
  • Scholarships and Bursaries

For Parents

  • Term Dates and Pupil-Free Days
  • Parent Engagement
  • School Boards and P&F Executives
  • The Reading Room
  • Critical Incidents & School Closures
  • School Transport Assistance
  • Student Care Insurance
  • Federation of Parents & Friends Associations
  • Cairns Diocesan P&F Council

Quick Links

  • Links
  • Resource Centre

Staff Links

  • Staff Portal
  • Staff Email
  • School CMS
  • Help Desk
NCSS
  • Aboriginal Flag
  • Torres Strait flag
  • We acknowledge the First Nations peoples of Australia, the traditional custodians of the land, seas, skies and waterways on which we reside, work, travel and meet. We pay our respect to First Nations elders past, present, and emerging, and support the Uluru Statement From The Heart. We acknowledge that the land, seas, skies and waterways of Australia were, are and always will be, that of the First Nations peoples.

Copyright © 2023 Catholic Education, Diocese of Cairns | Log in | Copyright | Privacy | Web Disclaimer | Conditions of Use

Join Us!

(07) 4050 9700