Zoom Security

The following measures will increase the security of your Zoom sessions and reduce the chance of unwanted attendees. We recommend using as many of these options as you reasonably can without impacting your meeting operations. If you are discussing any sensitive or confidential information in your meetings, these measures become that much more important.

On this Page:

  1. Only Share Zoom Links Inside of Canvas
  2. Meeting Passwords
  3. Enable the Waiting Room Feature
  4. Disable Join Before Host
  5. Limit Screen Sharing to the Host
  6. Remove a Participant from a Zoom Meeting or Webinar
  7. Lock Your Session
  8. More Security Tips: How to Avoid the Zoom Bomb

Only Share Zoom Links Inside of Canvas

You should only share your Zoom meeting links inside of PCC's Canvas system, which requires the students to log in using their secure PCC Lancer credentials.

This will reduce this risk of anyone who is not a PCC student accessing your Zoom meetings.

Meeting Passwords

It's highly recommended that you set a strong password for all meetings and webinars Links to an external site..

When scheduling a meeting, under Meeting Options, select Require meeting password, then specify a strong password (make your password at least eight characters long and use at least three of the following types of characters: lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, symbols). Post the password in a secure place for your participants, such as in a Canvas Announcement Links to an external site. or posted on your Canvas Home Links to an external site. page. In both cases, participants must log in to Canvas to obtain the password.  Participants will be asked for this password in order to join your meeting.

Enable the Waiting Room Feature

The Waiting Room feature Links to an external site. allows the host to control when each participant joins the meeting. As the meeting host, you can admit attendees one by one, or hold all attendees in the virtual waiting room and admit them en masse. This requires more work by the host, but only allows participants to join if you specifically admit them.

Disable Join Before Host

If you are scheduling a meeting where sensitive information will be discussed, it's best to leave Enable join before host (found under Meeting Options when scheduling a meeting) turned off. Visit Zoom's Join Before Host help page Links to an external site. for more information.

The Join Before Host option can be convenient for allowing others to continue with a meeting if you are not available to start it, but with this option enabled, the first person who joins the meeting will automatically be made the host and will have full control over the meeting.

Another option is to assign an Alternative Host Links to an external site..

It's still possible for a meeting to start without you (the host) even if Join Before Host is disabled. If you have given someone Scheduling Privilege Links to an external site., which allows them to schedule meetings on your behalf, then when that person joins a meeting before you, the meeting will begin and they will be made the host. This is typically not a problem, as the recommendation to disable Join Before Host is based on preventing unwanted/uninvited participants from hijacking a meeting. After you join, the role of Host can be reassigned to you.

Limit Screen Sharing to the Host

While in your meeting,

  1. Click the up-arrow next to Share Screen.
  2. Select Advanced Sharing Options.
  3. Under Who can share, click Only Host.

This won't be appropriate when multiple participants will need to share and collaborate, but setting this restriction will prevent unwanted guests from interrupting the meeting by initiating intrusive sharing.

Remove a Participant from a Zoom Meeting or Webinar

If you have already begun a session and find an unwanted attendee has joined:

  1. If the Participants panel is not visible, click Manage Participants at the bottom of the Zoom window.
  2. Next to the person you want to remove, click More.
  3. From the list that appears, click Remove.

Lock Your Session

The Zoom Host Controls Links to an external site. allow the host or co-host to lock the meeting. Once all your attendees have joined,

  1. If the Participants panel is not visible, click Manage Participants at the bottom of the Zoom window.
  2. At the bottom of the Participants panel, click More.
  3. From the list that appears, click Lock Meeting.

Unlock the meeting following these same steps.

When a meeting is locked, no one can join, and you (the host or co-host) will NOT be alerted if anyone tries to join, so don't lock the meeting until everyone has joined.

More Security Tips

Article: "How to Avoid the Zoom Bomb" ( Download PDF Download

)