4 Steps for Securing your Zoom Meetings

As a follow-up to my previous article, "5 Zoom Tips for Facilitating more Engaging Virtual Sessions" this post aims to address the very real security concerns people have had with Zoom and provide exact instructions on how to protect your meetings from similar incidents. My intention is not to defend or excuse the issues Zoom has experienced, but to inform those using Zoom how to protect your meetings.

First, there have been some really ugly and disturbing instances of people "Zoom-bombing" meetings, or taking over screen sharing to play obscene videos or images to all attendees. An automated tool was able to find 100 Zoom meeting IDs each hour that are not password protected. Some Schools and governments have switched from Zoom to Microsoft Teams as collaboration platforms of choice as a result.

In trying to make Zoom as easy to use and accessible for all, they had a number of their security features disabled by default. Zoom could have prevented many of the security incidences had they had these settings turned on by default instead, which they are now doing for their Free and Basic Plans.

Follow these four steps to improve the security of your Zoom Meetings:

1) Update your Zoom account - For some reason Zoom does not automatically push out all of their updates, but you can check for updates manually by opening the Zoom desktop app on your computer. Then, click on your profile picture or icon in the top right corner, scroll down and click on "Check for Updates". The most recent update was released on Wednesday, 8th April and does include security enhancements. One of the most significant updates is adding a "Security Icon" in the host's meeting controls which combines all of Zoom's in-meeting security controls into a single place. Information on the current version of Zoom and planned future releases can be viewed on the Zoom website for updates.

2) Enable Security Settings - Zoom already offered a number of security settings to protect meetings and will continue releasing more going forward. However, you must check which settings you have enabled and know how those settings may affect certain features. To access your settings, log in to your online account or click here.

The below image outlines the settings I have enabled in order to ensure more secure meetings, which you may use as a template to cross-check against your settings. Settings can be changed either at an administrator level or individually. You may wish to alter your settings depending on your audience and the purpose of the meeting. For instance, if the meeting is meant for public attendance, be sure to only allow the host to share their screen.

Pay attention to:

• Require a password when scheduling meetings - generates a password for each meeting which participants will need to enter the meeting.
• Embed password in meeting link for one-click join - allows anyone with this link (meeting ID+password in same URL) to click on to join for easier joining. If this setting is disabled then participants will have to type in the password separately when clicking to join the meeting.
• Annotation - When this setting is on, participants can draw and/or insert text on top of the presentation.
• Whiteboard - Whiteboard allows you to share a blank slate for participants to annotate on to capture ideas. The output of whiteboards and annotations can be saved to capture important inputs.
• Allow removed participants to rejoin - This setting should be off so that anyone that you remove from the meeting is not able to get back into the meeting using the same credentials.

3. Maintain Control of the Meeting - To further secure your meeting consider:

• Waiting room - When enabled the host must admit each participant individually into the meeting and can deny participants entry. The meeting cannot start without the host, so the host should be sure connect early in order to admit all participants and start the meeting on time.
• Who can share? - Turn on "Host only" to prevent others sharing their screen or videos without your permission. You are still able to add Co-hosts or make a participant of your choosing the presenter while in the meeting.
• Turn private chat off so that participants cannot directly send unwanted messages to other participants.
• Lock the meeting once it has started and all expected attendees have joined to prevent any uninvited guests from crashing the party.

4) Practice Proper Internet Security Hygiene - If not required to do so, do not post your meeting links in a public forum online. You wouldn't publish your email password online for all to see, so why would you post your Zoom link with password online for anyone to access? If required to host open meetings, disable participant sharing, mute participants by default, and do not allow removed participants to rejoin the meeting.

During this time of physical distancing, Zoom can be a wonderful tool to keep us socially connected with one another, our teams collaborating, and our audiences informed - if proper care is taken. Let me know what other advice you have for securing meetings in the comments and share if you found this post helpful!