Secure Your Zoom Meetings

Due to many Zoom calls being infiltrated by unwanted users/content, we have decided to put together a list of 10 ways you can ensure that your Zoom meetings are secure.

#1 - Use a Unique ID

When you schedule a Zoom meeting, look for the Meeting ID options and choose Generate Automatically. By having your Meeting ID generate automatically, you prevent Zoom-bombers from predicting what your Meeting ID is. It makes your Meeting's URL dynamic which makes it much more difficult for Zoom-bombers to get in.

#2 - Require A Meeting Password

One way to protect the meeting is to require a password. You can give the password out only to those who have replied and seem credible. To password-protect a meeting, start by scheduling a meeting and checking the box next to Require Meeting Password. This will prevent anyone without the password from getting inside your Zoom meeting. Be sure to share the password with all of the users that you would like to participate in your meeting.

#3 - Create a Waiting Room

When participants log into the call, they will see a Waiting Room screen and the host will allow them in. You can let people in all at once or one at a time, which means if you see names you don't recognize in the Waiting Room, you don't have to let them in. If users are in the waiting room, they will not be able to see/hear anything going on in the Zoom meeting.

#4 - Only the hosts should share their screen

Make sure your settings indicate that the only people allowed to share their screens are hosts. You can enable this setting in advance as well as during a call. This will prevent any unwanted screen shares from Zoom-bombers that could potentially display inappropriate content.

#5 - Create an Invite-Only Meeting

Only people who can join the call are those you invited, and they must sign in using the same email address you used to invite them.

For example, if you create an invite only meeting and invite your entire department, you don't have to worry about anyone from outside of your department getting inside the meeting.

#6 - Lock a meeting once it starts

While the meeting is running, navigate to the bottom of the screen and click Manage Participants. The Participants panel will open, and at the bottom, choose More and then Lock Meeting.

Locking the meeting will prevent any more users from joining your meeting. This means that once you have the participants that you want in your meeting, and you lock it, you don't have to worry about any Zoom-bombers coming in!

#7 - Removing Unwanted Participants

During the call, go to the Participants pane on the right... Hover over the name of the person you want to boot and when options appear, choose Remove.

#8 - Disable Someone's Camera

If someone is being rude or inappropriate on video, the host can open the Participants panel and click on the video camera icon next to the person's name to disable their camera.

#9 - Prevent Animated GIFs and other files in the chat

In the chat area of a Zoom meeting, participants can share files, including images and animated GIFs - if you let them. If you don't see a need for participants to share files through Zoom, simply don't allow them to. This will prevent any mishaps or inappropriate content from getting out to your meeting's participants.

#10 - Disable Private Chat

Open Settings in the Zoom web app (it's not in the desktop app). On the left side, go to Personal and then Settings. Then click In Meeting (Basic) and scroll until you see Private Chat. When the button is colored grey, that means it's disabled.

Attribution:
Duffy, J., 2020. How To Prevent Zoom-Bombing. [online] PCMAG. Available at: <https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-prevent-zoom-bombing> [Accessed 6 April 2020].