Has it been a while since you reviewed Zoom security features? As you prepare to teach this spring, consider the following features you may want to use.

Features to Secure Meetings

  • Allow only signed-in users to join: If someone tries to join your meeting and isn’t logged into Zoom with the email they were invited through, they will receive a message that says, “This meeting is for authorized attendees only.” This is useful if you want to allow only signed-in users to attend your meeting and only those from a certain domain — other students at your school or colleagues, for example. WARNING: If you decide to use this feature, you MUST communicate to your students they need to sign in to their Zoom account at https://chapman.zoom.us BEFORE joining your meeting. Otherwise, they will be locked out.
  • Enable the Waiting Room: The Waiting Room is an important feature for securing a Zoom Meeting. Just like it sounds, the Waiting Room is a virtual staging area that stops your guests from joining until you’re ready for them to join your meeting. Zoom allows you to customize your Waiting Room settings at https://chapman.zoom.us  Be sure to check your settings and make sure they are working in the way that works best for you. 
  • Lock the meeting: It’s always smart to lock your front door, even when you’re inside the house. When you lock a Zoom Meeting that has already started, no new participants can join, even if they have the meeting ID and passcode. Just click the Security icon at the bottom of your Zoom window. In the pop-up, click the button that says Lock Meeting. If you decide to use this feature, consider the fact that if a student loses internet connection and leaves the meeting, they won’t be able to get back in. 
  • Avoid using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI): Your PMI is basically one continuous meeting, and you don’t want outsiders crashing your personal virtual space after your designated meeting is over.
  • Report a user: Hosts can report users to Zoom’s Trust & Safety team, who will review any potential misuse of the platform and take appropriate action. Find this option within our Security icon or under the green shield icon in the top left corner of your meeting, where you can attach screenshots and other documentation as needed.
  • Remove unwanted or disruptive participants: You can remove someone from your meeting by using the Security Icon or Participants menu. On the Participants menu, you can mouse over a participant’s name and several options will appear, including Remove. Click Remove to kick someone out of the meeting. When you do remove someone, they can’t rejoin the meeting. But you can toggle your settings to allow removed participants to rejoin in case you boot the wrong person. Hosts can also mute and turn off the video of participants to block unwanted, distracting, or inappropriate noise/gestures from other participants.

General Best Practices

  • Automatic Updates: Automatic updates help users easily receive important security fixes and helpful features, improving their overall experience with the Zoom platform. Our automatic updates feature periodically checks Zoom servers to determine whether a new update is available and is enabled by default for most individual users. If you utilize mass deployment packages for Windows (MSI) and macOS (PKG), this user-level feature is disabled by default.

Lastly, Zoom now offers a Zoom Security Basics course in their newly launched Zoom Learning Center. The Zoom Learning Center is a free platform designed to educate and empower Zoom customers and users to confidently use Zoom through a series of short, on-demand online courses and videos.

Have any questions about making your Zoom meeting more secure? Contact Educational Technology Services at edutech@chapman.edu or stop by the Virtual Tech Hub.