Quick Start Guide: Secure Meetings in Zoom

All of the following are possible ways to make your Zoom Meetings and Webinars more secure. Select the options that work for you.

Step 1: Prevent Zoombombers from Joining your Meeting or Webinar

There are three different options you can use to prevent Zoombombers from joining your Zoom meeting or webinar. Use multiple options together for extra security. Learn more about these 3 options and which is right for your Meeting or Webinar.

Additionally, it is important to take the following precautions:

  • Avoid publishing Zoom Meeting or Webinar URLs or IDs in public communication channels, such as on a website or social media, whenever possible. If you must post information publicly, refer to Zoom Best Practices for Publicly Accessible Events.
  • Remind participants to not share meeting details.

Step 2: Adjust Your Settings

Meeting Options when Scheduling Individual Meetings

  • Do not use Allow participants to join anytime before start time (a.k.a. Join before host with the Anytime option) to ensure participants are not able to join the meeting before the host arrives.
    • Refer to Allow participants to join before host for more information.
    • NOTE: If both Allow participants to join before start time AND Automatically record meeting are checked, a participant could join the meeting AND create a recording without your knowledge or permission. Make sure to only check ONE of these at a time, not both.
  • Check Mute participants upon entry to automatically mute participants as they join the meeting. You can choose during the meeting whether they are permitted to unmute themselves--see Audio and Video in Step 3 below.

User Settings and Defaults

These settings apply to you as a user and any Zoom Meetings and/or Webinars that you host. Adjust the settings in the Zoom web portal.

  • Ensure that all Zoom Meetings you host use one of the 3 security options from Step 1 above to enforce security on your meetings.
  • Prevent Participants/Attendees from Saving In-Meeting/In-Webinar Chat to protect the privacy of chats sent within the Meeting or Webinar.
  • Disable File Transfer, which will ensure participants are not allowed to share files in the in-meeting chat during the meeting. Refer to In-Meeting File Transfer for more information.
  • Set the default screen sharing permissions for your meetings to only allow hosts and co-hosts to share their screens. Under Screen sharing: Who can Share, toggle on Host Only and click Save. During the Meeting, you can either disable this setting in the In-Meeting Security options or promote a participant to a co-host to allow them to share. Disabling the setting in an individual meeting changes the setting for that meeting only and will not impact other meetings.
  • Set the default annotation on a shared screen permission for your meetings to allow only the user who is sharing to annotate. Under Annotation, check the box next to Only the user who is sharing can annotate. During the Meeting, you can change this setting to allow users in the meeting to annotate: while sharing your screen, check Annotate on Shared Content in the In-Meeting Security options. Disabling the setting in an individual meeting changes the setting for that meeting only and will not impact other meetings.
  • Ensure Allow removed participants to rejoin is toggled off. This way, if you remove a participant from your meeting for being disruptive, they will be blocked from rejoining.
  • Protect participant privacy by masking phone numbers in the Participants list. This prevents meeting attendees from identifying other attendees' phone numbers. Click Mask phone numbers in the participant list on the Telephone tab.

Step 3: Minimize Disruptions During Your Meeting or Webinar

Audio and Video

  • Prevent participants from unmuting themselves unless you allow them. Uncheck Unmute Themselves in the In-Meeting Security options.
    • You can individually allow participants to unmute without rechecking this option: click Participants, then Ask to Unmute next to an individual's name. Try asking participants to raise their hands in order to speak, and unmute them when it is their turn to speak.
    • Mute participants by default when they join the meeting: click Participants, then More, then Mute All Upon Entry (if it is on, it shows a check mark).
  • Prevent participants from starting their video unless you allow them. Uncheck Start Video in the In-Meeting Security options.
    • You can individually allow participants to start their video without rechecking this option: click Participants, then the More dropdown next to an individual's name, then Ask to Start Video.
  • Hide profile pictures. By default, if someone's video is stopped, their profile picture shows instead. To avoid potential disruptive profile pictures, check Hide Profile Pictures in the In-Meeting Security options.

Screen Sharing and Annotation

  • Prevent participants from sharing their screens unless you allow them. Uncheck Share Screen in the In-Meeting Security options.
  • Prevent participants from annotating on a shared screen. While sharing your screen, uncheck Annotate on Shared Content in the In-Meeting Security options.

Chat and Q&A

  • Limit In-Meeting/In-Webinar Chat to control who can see chats that participants/attendees send.
  • Webinar Q&A: Do not allow anonymous questions, and only allow attendees to view answered questions. This allows you to moderate the Q&A as well as identify potential disruptors.

Other

  • Lock your meeting if everyone who should be there has joined. At the point a meeting is locked, no other participants are able to join the meeting. Refer to In-Meeting Security Options for more information.
  • Turn on the Waiting Room if most individuals who should be there have joined. All participants already in the meeting will be unaffected, but anyone who tries to join after this point will be subject to the Waiting Room rules defined in the host's Settings under Waiting Room Options. Refer to In-Meeting Security Options for more information.
  • Disruptors commonly change their names in Meetings and Webinars to offensive words or phrases, or to the name of another person in the Meeting to create confusion. To avoid this, you can prevent participants from renaming themselves. Uncheck Rename Themselves in the In-Meeting Security options.
    • Note: preventing renaming also prevents people from adding their pronouns or other useful guides to the end of their names, an unfortunate con to this strategy.
Tags: 
Zoom
Last Updated: 
Wednesday, March 17, 2021