Zoom has become a hugely popular video conferencing tool during the Coronavirus social distancing. It is being used in new ways and by a larger number of people. Anytime a technology becomes popular and used by a large number of people, it is a sad fact that attackers and abusers see a larger target they can take advantage of. Here are a few ways that you can help reduce attacks against your use of Zoom in the numerous ways being used today.
One: Disable Screen Sharing
What’s happening is people are joining meetings and sharing their own screen and content when they aren’t the presenter. There’ve been a few embarassing news stories about town hall meetings that have gone off the rails because someone started sharing inappropriate video during the meeting. Tighten this setting down so only the presenter can share their screen.
Two: Generate A Random Meeting ID
A random meeting ID means a specific link is created for that specific meeting. Generic meeting names that get reused have the same link so you could have unintended guests showing up at the next meeting. Create a new meeting invite for each separate meeting.
Three: Allow Authenticated Users Only
This sets the bar a little higher for someone joining your meeting. Not only do they need the link you sent out earlier after creating the meeting, but they need to have an account on Zoom itself, which means they need an email account to validate themselves. This isn’t perfect, but it makes things a little more difficult except for the extra crafty troublemaker.
Four: Require A Password
If it isn’t a public meeting and you don’t want someone just popping in, set a meeting password. Even if they have a Zoom account and have authenticated (Option 3) it doesn’t mean you want them joining your meeting.
Five: Join A Waiting Room
If you want people to wait until you join and approve their attendance, this is the answer. No body gets past the bouncer this way.
Summary
These are all options to use in creating the right kind of meeting for the right kind of audience. Not all of them apply for every circumstance, but use them as needed to have a meeting that is most productive, meaningful, and useful to everyone involved.
Further resources
A blog post on Zoom explaining options