Guidance for safe Zoom meetings

Dan Sayle
Dan Sayle
  • Updated

Password protect your meetings

The simplest way to prevent unwanted attendees and hijacking is to set a password for your meeting. Passwords can be set at the individual meeting, user, group, or account level for all sessions.

Zoom now generates passwords for scheduled meetings by default, and the host is now able to manage passwords for individual meetings.

All participants require the password to join the meeting. Subscription holders can also choose to go into Group Management to require that everyone follows the same password practices. 

Authenticate users

When creating a new event, you should choose to Only authenticated users can join. Only users who are signed in with a Zoom account are then able to join a meeting.

Join before host

Do not allow others to join a meeting before you, as the host, have arrived. You can enforce this setting
for a group under Account Settings.

Lock down your meeting

Once a session has begun, head over to the Manage Participants tab, click More and choose to lock your meeting as soon as every expected participant has arrived.

This will prevent others from joining even if meeting IDs or access details have been leaked.

Turn off participant screen sharing

Disabling the ability for meeting attendees is recommended to avoid an unauthorised participant from sharing their screen. This option can be changed using the Security tab, or Advanced Sharing Options.

Use a randomly-generated ID

You should not use your personal meeting ID if possible, as this could pave the way for pranksters or attackers that know it to disrupt online sessions. Instead, choose a randomly generated ID for meetings when creating a new event. In addition, you should not share your personal ID publicly.

Use Waiting Rooms

The Waiting Room feature is a way to screen participants before they are allowed to enter a meeting. While legitimately useful for purposes including interviews or virtual office hours, this also gives hosts greater control over session security.

Avoid File Sharing

Be careful when using the file sharing functionality in Zoom, especially if users you don't recognise are sending files in the sessions. For security, we recommended using external and trusted file sharing platforms such as OneDrive or SharePoint.

Remove nuisance attendees

If you find that someone is disrupting a meeting, you can kick them out under the Participants tab.
Hover over the name, click More and remove them.

You can also make sure they cannot re-join by disabling Allow Removed Participants to Re-join under the Settings: Meetings - Basic tab.

Check for updates

As security issues crop up and patches are deployed or functions are disabled, you should make sure
you have the latest build.

In order to check, open the desktop application, click on your profile in the top-right, and select "Check for updates.