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NILES -- An August regular city council meeting's Zoom video faced some complications, but the city's tech expert says the program is now secure.
During a caucus ahead of Wednesday's regular meeting, city officials heard from Christopher Hubinsky, city council's IT specialist, who said he reviewed the platform's settings after the video portion was forced to be cut short when its display showed what appeared to be a nude image of a man.
Officials went to the meeting room's back rooms to speak with Hubinsky, who was trying to prevent the imagery from popping up, but it would continue to show from a different account.
Law Director Phil Zuzolo previously said that a Zoom feature called Whiteboard appears to be the culprit, noting that officials weren't aware of it at the time.
"There's two types of Whiteboards within the Zoom program -- the first one through the share button, that has always been locked down," Hubinsky said. "It was the second one that was not secured. I thought it was under all the initial settings, but the way Zoom built it, it's separate; now knowing that, it's locked down, just like everything else."
Hubinsky said city officials can continue recording meetings via Zoom and there's no other administrative settings that could cause a similar issue in the future, but noted that there were other options for recordings.
"Chat's always disabled, video, their mics, all the shared abilities now including the secondary whiteboard that is outside of it," Hubinsky said. "So there's no other feature within Zoom that would allow them to bring in content or allow an attendee to see anything different."
Hubinsky said Zoom has always had a "waiting room" feature for security, and attendees are let into the meeting one at a time.
"In the past where we've had the live presenters here, that's helped us control the room, bring in the presenter, get them set up, and after they're ready, then we bring in the public audience," Hubinsky said.
Hubinsky said the culprit did not circumvent the waiting room process, noting that it was a "very normal-looking name."
"Sometimes we'll get a name where it's just, 'iPhone,' or a cellphone number. I mean, to that, we don't know. It could be any Niles resident, it could be anyone anywhere," Hubinsky said. "I welcome them in, and then they're part of the group; there's no way for me to identify if there's a threat."
Hubinsky said he'd notify officials if someone joined with a goofy-looking or inappropriate name, but they haven't had issues like that.
Hubinsky said he would recommend sticking with Zoom and posting the meeting recordings to YouTube afterward, and potentially just doing the stream through YouTube.
He said he's experienced using Google Meet and Microsoft Teams if council wished to move to a different platform, but he prefers Zoom because it's the easiest for residents to join.
Zuzolo said following the meeting that the Bureau of Criminal Investigation has been contacted, but he cannot confirm whether they've taken over the investigation.