5 Easy Steps to Secure Your Zoom Meetings

Wondering how to prevent a potential Zoom security risk? With the significant increase of remote work due to COVID-19, there have been some concerns regarding the security of online meetings hosted in Zoom. With threats such as Zoombombing, the act of intruding on another individuals or organization’s call and disrupting, to the potential data threats that have come to light, it’s up to you to ensure that your organization and end-users are protected.

Zoom Meeting Host Security Capabilities

Some of the in-meeting security capabilities that are available to the meeting host include:

• Secure a meeting with end-to-end encryption
• Create waiting rooms for attendees
• Require the host to be present before the meeting starts
• Expel a specific participant or all participants
• Lock a meeting
• Screen share watermarks
• Create audio signatures
• Enable/disable a participant or all participants to record
• Temporarily pause screen-sharing when a new window is opened
• Password-protect a meeting
• Allow only individuals with a given email domain to join

How to Prevent a Zoom Security Risk

Here are five easy steps to follow to further secure your Zoom meetings:

1. Generate Random Meeting ID

When you set up Zoom, you are given a Personal Meeting ID. This means that as a meeting host you have a dedicated meeting room that never changes. To keep your Zoom meetings secure, generate a random meeting ID each time. To do so, go to your Zoom Web Settings and select Schedule a Meeting:

2. Enable Waiting Room

To further secure your Zoom meeting, you can then enable the Waiting Room option for your meeting, which provides a holding area and the ability to customize a message with guidelines on who is allowed to join. Under Settings, select In Meeting (Advanced) then Waiting Room.

3. Control Screen Sharing

You can select who is allowed to share their screen during the meeting. In Web Settings, go to In Meeting (Basic) and lock the Screen Sharing as a default option.

To prevent a potential Zoom security risk while in the meeting, click on Share Screen, click Advanced Options, and then select Only Host can share.

4. Disable File Transfer

Unless there is a very specific reason, you can disable file sharing. Go to Settings, click In Meeting (Basic), then disable File Transfer.

5. Restrict Access to Authenticated Users

You can also strictly control who joins the meetings (i.e., if they are not on the list, they cannot get in). Go to Web Settings, click Schedule Meeting, and then enable Only Authenticated Users Can Join Meetings. Even if someone finds the meeting links and password, they still need to be logged in to Zoom. You can also lock down further by restricting Zoom meeting access to users on a specific domain.

Understanding Zoom Security Risk

While some of these tips may seem basic, it can be difficult for new users (of which now there are many) to know that these features exist and ultimately where to find and use them. Though this article won’t be able to eliminate the risk of using Zoom, or any video conferencing platform, it should serve as a stepping stone toward a robust security policy and cybersecurity program.

How to Secure Your Zoom Meetings [PDF]

To help prevent a potential Zoom security risk for yourself or your organization, download this easily shareable PDF for reference.  If your organization has determined that it is sensible to move away from the Zoom platform, there are several alternative low to no-cost conferencing options available.