The FBI has issued warnings that "Zoombombing" is at an all-time high.
What is Zoombombing"?
Zoombombing is a type of cyberattack; it describes when someone hijacks a Zoom teleconferencing chat. Users say their meetings have been interrupted by strangers drawing offensive imagery onscreen, sharing pornographic images, doxxing (sharing the person information of) people in the chat, or taunting them with hate speech and threats.
What can we do to stop people from Zoombombing?
There are steps that you can take to make your meeting more secure, these steps are outlined in this video created by Zoom.
Host Controls - While In The Meeting
Steps you can take as the host.
Limit who can share their screen to the Zoom Meeting
You do not want random people in your public event taking control of the screen and sharing unwanted content with the group. You can restrict this — before the meeting and during the meeting in the host control bar — so that you’re the only one who can screen-share.
Once in the meeting, the host has the ability to limit who is allowed to share their screen. Click on the menu next to Share / Share Screen / New Share, and click on Advanced Sharing Options.
Under “Who can share?” choose “Only Host” and close the window. You can also lock the Screen Share by default for all your meetings in your web settings.
Settings While Scheduling Zoom Meeting
Generate Meeting ID
One of the most helpful ways to keep Zoombombers from hijacking your meeting is to always set the Meeting ID to be generated automatically
Require a Password
You can also set up your meeting to have a password, but this would require notifying your guests prior to the meeting and should not be in the same email or social media post as the invite.
Authenticated
This setting is not recommended for meetings outside of ALA Staff. It requires every user to sign into a Zoom Account.
When the guest tries to join they will see this
Enable Waiting Room
One of the best ways to use Zoom for public events is to enable the Waiting Room feature. Just like it sounds, the Waiting Room is a virtual staging area that stops your guests from joining until you’re ready for them. It’s almost like the velvet rope outside a nightclub, with you as the bouncer carefully monitoring who gets let in.
Meeting hosts can customize Waiting Room settings for additional control, and you can even personalize the message people see when they hit the Waiting Room so they know they’re in the right spot. This message is really a great spot to post any rules/guidelines for your event, like who it’s intended for.
To fully take advantage of Waiting Room go to Settings on the left-hand side.
Scroll to the Waiting Room Settings
- Turn Waiting Room On
- Click the Guest participants only to allow any ALA Staff that are signed into Zoom to bypass the Waiting Room (Guests not signed in will require hosts approval to enter)
To see a demo of this, please watch the video above.
Authenticated Users
Using this setting will mean that every guest will need to sign into Zoom and may bypass the "Require Password Setting"
Other Important Settings
Click settings on the left hand side
Turn Chat Off
Doing this will mean that guests can only message the Host or Co-Host
Turn off Private Chat
This will not allow guests to message other guests and should be turned off in all Meetings to prevent harassment
Turn Annotation Off
This will stop guests from drawing over your screen shares and is an important step to lock down a Zoom Meeting for privacy
If you would like training on making your Zoom meetings more secure, please book a time on Calendly: https://calendly.com/patrickharrington/zoom