With more people than ever before using Zoom for teaching, learning and working, Information Technology Services wants to remind users of best practices to keep their Zoom meetings secure.
To maximize the security of all users and minimize the possibility for disruption, do not post public links to meetings, forward meeting invites or share meeting IDs beyond the intended audience. ITS also encourages users to review their current Zoom profile settings to make of Waiting Rooms and Passcodes.
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Currently, all new meetings you schedule should have the Waiting Room option pre-selected. You have the option to leave this setting as-is, switch it to Passcode, or choose both options for maximum security.
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Review existing meetings you have scheduled – including standing meetings – and add either Waiting Rooms or Passcodes to all existing meetings. If you opt to schedule meetings using Passcodes, you will need to update Zoom meeting invites in calendar invitations so that the password-embedded meeting links are included for your attendees, which will be necessary in order for them to enter your meeting. If you do nothing, the Waiting Room feature will be automatically applied to all of your existing meetings not leveraging a Passcode.
With Waiting Room, meeting hosts will need to manually admit participants into the meeting by clicking on the “Participants” button at the bottom of the meeting window and then admitting all or selected participants. If users do not prefer using the Waiting Room, they have a couple of options:
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Choose to use Passcodes when scheduling new meetings and reschedule all existing meetings to utilize a Passcode.
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Add an alternative host to your Zoom meeting, who can assist with admitting meeting attendees when using the Waiting Room.
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When prompted to choose which users get placed in the Waiting Room, select “Users Not In Your Account,” which will allow users on your same domain (i.e. @unl.edu) to bypass the Waiting Room and automatically enter the meeting. To maximize this feature, other participants in your meeting need to be logged into the Zoom client on their device.
Waiting Rooms
How Waiting Rooms Work for Those Setting Up (Hosting) a Zoom Meeting
To allow people into your meeting:
1. Click “Manage Participants”
2. Click “Admit” to allow a participant join the meeting or “Remove” to deny
3. If you have multiple participants you wish to have join the meeting, you can admit them all at once by clicking “Admit All”
How Waiting Rooms Work When You Are Joining Someone Else’s Zoom Meeting
When you join a Zoom meeting, you will automatically be put into the host’s waiting room. There is no action for you to take; you will join the meeting when the host admits you.
Utilizing Waiting Rooms During a Disturbance
A host has the ability to remove or place a participant in the Waiting Room if there is a disturbance. To do this, open the Participants menu at the bottom of the meeting and hover over the individual in question. Click More to see your options.
Passcodes
How to Change Default Setting from Waiting Room to Passcode
1. Sign into the Zoom web portal and navigate to Settings.
2. In the Security section, go to "Require a passcode when scheduling new meetings" and click the toggle to enable it.
3. If wish to disable Waiting Room, scroll up to "Waiting Room" in the Security section and click the toggle.
NOTE: You must have either Passcodes or Waiting Room enabled.
How Passwords Work for Those Setting Up (Hosting) a Zoom Meeting
Requiring participants to submit a password to enter a meeting adds an extra layer of security to Zoom meetings. To apply this feature when you set up your meeting, click “Schedule New Meeting" and check the box to "Require meeting password."
If you choose this option when you schedule a Zoom meeting, the meeting password will be included in the meeting invitation.
The password will also be included in the Join Zoom Meeting URL.
How Passwords Work When You Are Joining Someone Else’s Zoom Meeting
There are two options for joining a password-protected meeting:
1. Click the link in the meeting invitation. This will take you straight to the host’s waiting room.
2. If you use the Zoom app (Zoom client) on your computer or device, type in the Meeting ID. Once you click “Join” you will be asked to submit the password that is in the meeting invitation.
Additional Security Features
Restrict Attendees Activities
Turning off attendee chat, screen sharing and participants' ability to unmute themselves by clicking on the Security button at the bottom of the meeting helps prevent anyone on the call from making an unwanted disruption.
To control attendees participation, click on "Security" and uncheck through the options.
Hosts can also control participants' activities from the Participants menu at the bottom of the meeting.
Lock the Meeting
When you lock a Zoom meeting that's already started, no new participants can join – even if they have the meeting ID and password.
To lock a meeting that's in progress, click "Security" and check "Lock Meeting."
Additional safety controls available inside the meeting
• Remove unwanted or disruptive participants: From that Participants menu, you can mouse over a participant’s name, and several options will appear, including Remove. Click that to kick someone out of the meeting.
• Start Attendee On Hold: You can put everyone else on hold, and the attendees’ video and audio connections will be disabled momentarily. Click on someone’s video thumbnail and select Start Attendee On Hold to activate this feature. Click Take Off Hold in the Participants list when you’re ready to have them back.
• Disable video: Hosts or Co-Hosts can turn someone’s video off. This will allow hosts to block distractions.
• Mute participants: Hosts can mute/unmute individual participants or all of them at once. Hosts can block unwanted, distracting, or inappropriate noise from other participants. You can also enable Mute Upon Entry in your settings.
• Turn off annotation: You and your attendees can doodle and mark up content together using annotations during screen share. You can disable the annotation feature in your Zoom settings to prevent people from writing all over the screens.
• Disable private chat: Zoom has in-meeting chat for everyone or participants can message each other privately. Restrict participants’ ability to chat amongst one another while your event is going on and cut back on distractions. This is really to prevent anyone from getting unwanted messages during the meeting.
If you have any questions, please contact your campus Help Desk or email support@nebraska.edu.