Is Zoom Safe? 7 Essential Steps to Secure Your Zoom Meetings

Is Zoom Safe?

Nearly five months have passed since the first Coronavirus case appeared in Wuhan, China, and life has changed a lot since then. Cases continue to rise, and social distancing and remote work are now common. Many schools, recreation centers, and businesses have closed to slow the spread, with only essential services still open. Lockdowns and strict rules in many countries have made it difficult for people to work, causing some businesses to close and people to lose jobs.

Some organizations have continued to serve their clients by allowing employees to work from home. Because of this, many now use virtual meeting tools like Skype, GoTo Meeting, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, BlueJeans, and others.

The rise of Zoom

A few months ago, Zoom was not the most popular video conferencing app. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, it has become much more widely used. In 2019, Zoom had 1.19 million users, but in just the past few months, it added 2.2 million monthly users, which is more than it gained in all of 2019.

This growth was unexpected, and as a result, Zoom has faced criticism for security vulnerabilities and weak data protection. The company’s developers have worked hard to fix these issues, but new problems still appear regularly.

While Zoom’s developers continue to improve security, you can follow these tips to help keep your meetings private and safe.

7 Essential Steps to Secure Your Zoom Meetings

1) Password protection

A simple way to keep your meetings secure and block unwanted guests is to set strong passwords. You can set passwords for each meeting, group, user, or for your whole account. To do this, sign up for Zoom or log in, go to the settings tab, and turn on “Require a password when scheduling new meetings.” This way, a new password is created for every meeting, and all participants must use it to join.

2) Update your application

No app is perfect. Hackers are always looking for security gaps, and Zoom’s developers work hard to fix them. To keep your video calls safe, update your Zoom app regularly. For example, a Windows issue that let hackers steal logins was fixed in the April 1st update.

3) Do not share Zoom details on any public forum.

Do not share your meeting link on public forums like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. If you do, anyone, including hackers, can join your meeting. People with bad intentions might share your link with others or post it on the dark web, which can lead to zoombombing and other problems.

4) Protect your meeting IDs

If you often host public meetings using meeting IDs instead of links, make sure to use a randomly generated ID. This helps prevent hackers or intruders from hijacking your meeting.

Many people find it easier to use the meeting ID, especially for regular meetings with coworkers. If the meeting ID is leaked, anyone with the link can join and disrupt your meeting at any time.

5) Enable Waiting Room

The waiting room is a virtual space where people wait until you approve them to join. You can accept invited participants and block intruders, which helps keep your meeting secure. According to Zoom, this setting may soon become the default for the app.

6) Restrict permission and screen sharing

Being the host you have the power to restrict what a participant can do or not do during a meeting. For an effective meeting, you should be able to mute and control who talks and who to mute. You can also prevent your participants from screen sharing. Screen sharing gives a chance to the intruder to access your meeting and sometimes they may end up spoiling the meeting.

7) Disable “join before host” and also “allow removed participants to rejoin”

No participants should be allowed to join the meeting before the host has joined. To prevent intruders from accessing the meeting, the host should first join the meeting and vet the participants he or she had invited for the meeting.

You should also turn off the setting that allows removed participants to rejoin. Sometimes, people you remove may try to come back. Disabling this feature ensures that once someone is removed, they cannot rejoin the meeting.

The tips in this article can help you keep your Zoom meetings secure. However, they do not guarantee complete security. If you need to hold a highly confidential meeting, Zoom may not be the best choice.

This is because Zoom does not yet offer full end-to-end encryption, which is the highest level of security. Zoom could still access your unencrypted meetings without your knowledge. Still, the app is becoming more popular, and most users are happy with its security and services.

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Secure Your Virtual Meetings with Ayvant’s Expert Guidance

Concerned about online security? Ayvant’s experts can help you set up safe virtual meetings with important protective steps. Contact us today to schedule a consultation and learn how to protect your online sessions from intrusions and improve your meeting security.