Prevent Zoom-bombing

REVISION IN PROGRESS: This article contains useful information, but is being revised to reflect recent updates. Direct questions to TLT (tlt@winona.edu).

There are several ways you can prevent Zoom-bombing, or uninvited participants joining your meetings and behaving badly. Uncommon normally, expect to see more of it as more people use Zoom to telework during the COVID-19 pandemic. Restricting access to Zoom meetings is easy. Adding a meeting password, allowing only authenticated attendees to join, using a waiting room to screen attendees, locking the meeting after all your attendees arrive, and removing troublemakers are all effective preventative measures. Configure specific meeting options and change global defaults to secure your meetings and protect your attendees.

The typical incident

Zoom-bombing begins when someone joins your unprotected meeting as a guest (i.e., without using StarID credentials) in an attempt to remain anonymous. The person typically uses a fake name, which is often offensive and easy to spot. The person then says something offensive and/or tries to screen share offensive material. The person may also type something offensive in the Chat panel. An unprotected meeting is any meeting session in which anyone can simply use the meeting link, Meeting ID, or personal link name to enter the meeting.

What if it happens?

End the meeting

If your meeting is disrupted, just end it before the troublemaker can do more damage. Reconvene in minutes, after securing the meeting. Warn your attendees in advance that you may need to end the meeting abruptly and instruct them what to do if that happens.

1. Select End Meeting (Fig 1.1)
2. Select End Meeting for All (Fig 1.2)

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  Fig 1. End the meeting for all

Press the Security button

Zoom hosts and co-hosts can select the Security button at the bottom on the meeting window to access useful functions very quickly. This includes:

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  Fig X. Press Security button

Remove participant

Select this to remove an attendee immediately. Combine this with Lock Meeting or Enable waiting room to prevent the kicked participant from returning. You can remove someone while they are screen sharing.

Share screen

Select this to turn screen sharing on and off for all attendees. Screen sharing without host permission is prohibited across all meetings by default. If you changed the global setting or gave all participants permission to share during the live meeting and someone starts sharing objectionable material, stop the sharing and use this to remove screen sharing permissions for all attendees quickly.

Disable chat

Select this to toggle the chat function on and off for all attendees.

Disable renaming

Select this toggle to disable renaming (e.g., to prevent attendees from changing their names to something offensive) or to enable it (e.g., to allow attendees to change their names to something less offensive).

Lock the meeting

Select this to lock and unlock the meeting. Locking the meeting prevents anyone, even co-hosts and other authenticated attendees, from joining. If you lock the meeting after kicking the troublemaker, that person will be unable to return.

Enable waiting room

Select this to toggle the waiting room on and off. This works even if you didn't enable this option when creating the meeting. Unless you changed this global setting, all waiting rooms are configured to allow authenticated attendees to join the meeting immediately. Only guests are sent to the waiting room.

Top four preventative measures

Don't publish your meeting link

Only share your meeting link, Meeting ID, or personal link name with your meeting participants. Do not publish them on public social media or anywhere on the open Web. Posting the meeting information to a protected location (e.g., Brightspace course, private Teams site) and emailing it to your meeting attendees are good ways to share it.

Set a meeting password

1. Log in to the Zoom host web portal at http://minnstate.zoom.us and open your meeting in edit mode.
2. Check the Require a meeting password setting.
3. Enter a password.
4. Select Save.
5. Share the password with your attendees.

Enable meeting authentication

1. Log in to the Zoom host web portal at http://minnstate.zoom.us and open your meeting in edit mode.
2. Check the Only authenticated users can join setting.
3. Select Save.
4. Make sure your participants know how to how to sign in to a Zoom meeting using StarID credentials. On the plus side, if they sign in this way once, they will remain signed in to their Zoom account with their StarID credentials and will not need to authenticate again for any subsequent meeting.

Enable the waiting room

1. Log in to the Zoom host web portal at http://minnstate.zoom.us and open your meeting in edit mode.
2. Check the Enable waiting room setting.
3. Select Save.
4. Review the waiting room instructions for managing attendees as they arrive.

Adjust your global settings

All of the options below can be set by hosts as global settings that will apply to all their meetings by default. Note that some of these changes will only apply to new meetings and you can also override some of these global settings on a meet-by-meeting basis, so check your personal meeting and any existing meeting options to be sure they are configured as needed. To make changes to your global settings, log in to the Zoom host web portal at http://minnstate.zoom.us and select Settings. Then adjust the following as needed:

Disable join before host

• Slide the Join before host slider Off

Enable authentication

• Slide the Only authenticated users can join meetings slider On

Require a password

• Slide the Require a password when scheduling new meetings slider On
• Slide the Require a password for instant meetings slider On
• Slide the Require a password for Personal Meeting ID (PMI) slider On
• Slide the Require password for participants joining by phone slider On

Mute participants

• Slide the Mute participants upon entry slider On

Disable file transfer

• Slide the File transfer slider Off

Control screen sharing

With the Screen sharing slider On

1. Select Host Only under Who can share?
2. Select Save (Fig 1)

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  Fig 1. Select Host only and Save

Permaban

• Slide Allow removed participants to rejoin slider Off

Enable waiting room

1. Slide the Waiting room slider On
2. Select either All participants or Guest participants only to decide who is directed to the waiting room

More wiki articles

• Get Zoom meeting assistance
• Solve Zoom meeting technical problems
• Activate your Minnesota State Zoom Pro account
• Use your Zoom personal meeting
• Scheduling a Zoom meeting
• Edit a Zoom meeting
• Invite people to a Zoom meeting
• Hosting a Zoom meeting
• Joining a Zoom meeting
• Update your Zoom application manually
• Video conferencing tips and tricks
• Keep Teaching Manual

External links

• FBI Warns of Teleconferencing and Online Classroom Hijacking During COVID-19 Pandemic
• Beware of ‘ZoomBombing’: screensharing filth to video calls
• Zoom-bombing: How to keep trolls out of your Zoom meetings

 

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