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Keep Zoom Meetings Private and Reduce the Odds of Zoombombing

Zoom has quickly become the virtual meeting platform of choice for those who need to attend meetings but are currently self-isolating or working from home.

The default settings for Zoom leaves meetings open for anyone to join. This makes it a lot simpler for people to join – but it also leaves the chance someone could stumble across your Zoom meeting accidentally. There have been reports of people abusing this for pranks, as well as more sinister activities.

To keep your meetings safe from pranksters, eavesdroppers, or other malicious actors you can set a password. As long as you choose a secure password, you should be able to avoid anyone Zoombombing your meeting.

Zoombombing
Zoombombing

Meeting Passwords

It’s highly recommended that you set a strong password for all meetings and webinars.

When scheduling a meeting, under Meeting Options, select Require meeting password, then specify a strong password (make your password at least eight characters long and use at least three of the following types of characters: lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, symbols). Participants will be asked for this password in order to join your meeting.

Generate a Secure Password here: https://www.lastpass.com/password-generator

Setting a Password

First all open up Zoom.

Zoom Main Screen (Extract)
Zoom Main Screen (Extract)

At the bottom of the main window click on the Meetings button. This will open up the Meetings page and will list all the meetings you have scheduled. It is possible to set a unique password for each meeting.

Zoom Meetings Screen (Extracted)
Zoom Meetings Screen (Extracted)

After you have selected a meeting, click on the Edit button to view the settings for that particular meeting.

Zoom Meetings Screen (Extracted)
Zoom Meetings Screen (Extracted)

In the Password section tick, the box labelled Require a meeting password. A password field will then be shown. Type a password in the password field, and click Save.

You will now need to share the meeting link and the password to anyone who needs to attend the meeting. For extra security try to send the link and password via separate communications. i.e. emailing the meeting link and sending the password via a secure messenger.

Your meetings should now be more protected from prying eyes; whether accidental, curious, or malicious. 

Limit Screen Sharing to the Host

By default, screen sharing in Zoom meetings is limited to the host. You can change this if you need to allow other attendees to share their screens. If you make this change and decide to return to having screen sharing be limited to the host, while in your meeting,

  1. Click the up-arrow next to Share Screen.
  2. Select Advanced Sharing Options.
  3. Under Who can share, click Only Host.

This won’t be appropriate when multiple participants will need to share and collaborate, but this restriction prevents unwanted attendees from interrupting the meeting with intrusive sharing.

Host-Only Screen Sharing

Remove a Participant from a Zoom Meeting or Webinar

If you have already begun a session and find an unwanted attendee has joined:

  1. If the Participants panel is not visible, click Manage Participants at the bottom of the Zoom window.
  2. Next to the person you want to remove, click More.
  3. From the list that appears, click Remove.
Remove Unwanted Participants from Zoom

Enable the Waiting Room Feature

The Waiting Room feature allows the host to control when each participant joins the meeting. As the meeting host, you can admit attendees one by one, or hold all attendees in the virtual waiting room and admit them en masse. This requires more work by the host, but only allows participants to join if you specifically admit them.

Zoom Waiting Room

If you require assistance with keeping Zoom Meetings Private and Reduce the Odds of Zoombombing or just need Remote IT Support, please contact the team at PCFIXIT Business IT Solutions on 07 5522 1120

Supporting Gold Coast & Tweed Region clients since 2007