Zoom Meeting & Remote/Hybrid Course Security Best Practices

How can I keep my Zoom meetings secure and limit disruptions?

Use this information to help secure your Zoom meetings and remote/hybrid courses. 

1. Keep Your Software Up-to-date

 As security issues are detected and patches are deployed or functions are disabled, be sure to keep your Zoom account upgraded to the latest build. To check if your account is up-to-date:

1. Open the Zoom desktop application.
2. Click on your profile in the top-right.
3. Select Check for updates.

2. Secure Your Account Settings

The standard Zoom Account Settings at BGSU are intended to allow for simple and collaborative meetings. The following changes will limit some of the features in order to add additional security. You can access these settings by logging into the Zoom website and then selecting the Settings page on the left navigation. The following options are presented in the order they will appear on your page:

• Mute participants upon entry - Enable
  • This change will require your students to un-mute themselves before they can speak during class. 
• Meeting chat - Direct Messages - Disable
  • This change will prevent your students from sending private chats to each other.
  • This can reduce student communication but will also stop one option for harassment during meetings.
• Screen sharing, Who can share? - Host Only
  • This change will prevent your students from sharing their screens and computer audio unless you enable that ability during a meeting. 
• Only the user who is sharing can annotate - Enable
  • This change will prevent students from drawing on top of the screen while you are sharing.
• Allow participants to rename themselves - Disable
  • This change will prevent students from changing their names during a meeting. 
• Hide participant profile pictures in a meeting - Enable
  • This feature will prevent students from uploading a photo to be displayed while their video is muted. 

3. Schedule a Secure Meeting.

To increase the security of your meeting, schedule your meetings through Canvas, and avoid sharing a direct link to your meeting. When you create your meeting, the following options can be set to increase security:

• Mute participants upon entry - Enable
  • This has a similar function to the account setting with the same name. 
  • If you set this at the account level, you do not need to set it here.
• Only authenticated users can join - Enable
  • While there is an account setting for this, this feature should be enabled on a per-meeting basis. 
  • With this feature on, users outside of BGSU will not be able to join including guest speakers.
  • If you do enable this feature, you will need to include instructions on how to sign into Zoom Apps using a BGSU Account for your students.

• Avoid hosting large meetings or "public" events using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI)

  Your PMI is a Zoom meeting "room" permanently reserved to your account that can be accessed using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) or personal link. Your Personal Meeting Room is ideal for use with people you meet with regularly. However, because it is always accessible with the same Meeting ID and personal link, it should not be used for large meetings or meetings with people whom you do not meet consistently. Once a participant has the link to your PMI, they can enter the room any time it is in use, unless you lock the meeting or use the Waiting Room feature to admit participants individually.

4. Managing a Secure Class Meeting

If you still find that a user is attempting to disrupt your class, the following steps will help to minimize the interruption. All of these features can be found by opening the Participant window in your Zoom controls and selecting the ellipses (...) icon in the bottom right.

• Mute participants upon entry - Enable
  • This has a similar function to the account setting with the same name. 
  • If you set this at the account level, you do not need to set it here.
• Allow participants to unmute themselves - Disable
  • ​​​​​​​This feature will prevent students you have muted from removing that mute.
  • Students will need to chat or alert you in another way if they need to speak.
  • You can unmute a specific student by selecting the Unmute button next to their name in the Participant window.
• Allow participants to rename themselves - Disable​​​​​​​
  • ​​​​​​​This has a similar function to the account setting with the same name. 
  • If you set this at the account level, you do not need to set it here.
• Remove User - More options next to the participant name
  • ​​​​​​​This feature allows you to remove a user from your meeting and prevent them from easily returning.
  • To remove a user, select the More button next to their name in the Participant window and select Remove from the menu that appears.
• Enable Waiting Room - Enable
  • ​​​​​​​This change forces anyone joining your meeting to wait to be admitted manually.
  • Before you enable this feature, students can join normally. 
  • This should be used in conjunction with the Remove User feature. 
  • When student are waiting, you will see an orange banner at the top of your Participant menu with an Admit button. 
• Lock Meeting - Enable
  • This change stops anyone from joining your meeting.
  • This should be used in conjunction with the Remove User feature. 
  • This feature should only be used if you are sure all of your students are in the meeting.

• Disable participant screen sharing.

  This keeps participants for accidentally sharing their screen or from sharing unwanted material.

1. From the host controls, select the up arrow next to Share Screen.
2. Select Advanced Sharing Options. 
3. Under Who can share? choose Only Host.
4. Close the window.

For additional assistance, please contact Information Technology Services at 419-372-0999 or through chat.