No doubt you’re hearing that there are concerns with privacy and safety on Zoom meetings and webinars. “Zoom bombers” have been joining open meetings and sharing undesirable content! There’s been reports that an attacker uses vulnerabilities to steal Windows login credentials from other users.
However, Zoom is popular because its so easy to use, convenient and inexpensive. So, you may not want to abandon the platform but instead leverage the settings in Zoom that can help you keep your meeting safe. Here’s a list that you may like to consider.
- Lock down your meetings with passwords.
- Mute attendees on joining.
- Lock down screen sharing and file sharing. An attendee then cannot take over your meeting with their screen without your permission.
- Kick a user out of your room if you need to. Click Manage Participants at the bottom of the Zoom window. Next to the person you want to remove, click More. From the list that appears, click Remove and confirm.
- Don’t share your Zoom meeting link in public places like social media or other public forums
- Lock Meeting. Once a meeting has started and everyone is in attendance, click Participants at the bottom of your Zoom window. In the participants pop-up box, you will see a button that says Lock Meeting. When you lock the meeting, no new participants can join, even if they have the meeting ID and password.
- Don’t use Zoom chats for private messages. Be aware that when your Zoom meeting may be recorded, and the room owner will receive a transcript of everything you say privately.
- Don’t share personal information. Don’t share personally identifiable information with anyone, whether private or publicly. Anything you type into chat or say in a Zoom meeting you likely don’t have control of, and it may be recorded!
- Turn off video and mute yourself unless needed. This prevents recording conversations in your home or exposing information you might not want it to.
- Use Signal and WebEX. If security is imperative, choose an option such as Signal for secure text communication and Cisco’s WebEx offers end-to-end encryption and encrypted recordings
With thanks to Wordfence.com for many of their suggestions