Security News > 2020 > April > Analysts: NFL Draft runs smoothly, but security concerns to persist through weekend
The NFL's first ever virtual draft went off without a hitch in the first round, but teams will have to be on watch through the six remaining rounds.
Unlike previous years, where the NFL Draft was held at Radio City Music Hall or other large venues, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced each team's picks from the basement of his home in Bronxville, NY due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cybersecurity experts had a litany of concerns about how the event would be protected considering all 32 teams and the NFL league office had dozens of executives, scouts and coaches all coordinating picks and decisions from the privacy of their homes.
Teams sent the NFL Player Personnel department their draft choices using Microsoft Teams and coordinated internally through some combination of texting and video conferencing platform Zoom, which has been in the news for its litany of security issues and concerns.
NFL officials told Reuters that teams cannot communicate with the league through Zoom and will only contact them with their picks through Microsoft Teams, which they have urged teams to use over other platforms.