Zoom Privacy and Security

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW

To maintain the integrity of your Zoom meeting or webinar, you may take advantage of several features offered in Zoom at UT. The following article includes many steps to better prevent unwanted disruptions during Zoom calls.

Zoombombing

Zoombombing is the term for when individuals "gate-crash" Zoom meetings. These uninvited guests share their screens to bombard real attendees with offensive content. Most of these are perpetrated via publicly available Zoom links; however, not all depending on your settings. 

In a Zoombombing situation, Suspend Participant Activity allows a host to immediately suspend all participants from sharing camera, using microphones, chat, screenshare, annotation, and the meeting will become locked to prevent new participants from joining. This will allow the host to report and remove malicious actors. 

To active Suspend Participant Activity 

  1. Click the Security icon on the bottom Zoom toolbar 

  1. Click Suspend Participant Activity 

  1. Click Suspend 

  1. You may also remove the participant and submit a report for the user through Zoom 

Suspend Participant Activity

Hosts can then re-enable participants to share video and use chat after malicious actor are removed and the session can be unlocked if necessary. 

 

IMPORTANT

 

 

PLANNING FOR SECURE PUBLIC MEETINGS

  1. If you must have a public Zoom event (post the Zoom link publicly via social media, website, etc):
  • Convert your meeting to a webinar (here’s how)
    • NOTE: A webinar license is necessary for the conversion
    • A webinar will give you control over who participates with video, audio, chat, and screen sharing
    • If you are a registered student organization please contact help@utexas.edu for access to a webinar license
  • If you have a recurring use case for a webinar room, we recommend purchasing a webinar license
  • If you have a one-time requirement for a webinar room you can request a temporary license by following steps in this article
    • NOTE:  Sign in with your UT EID and password to view this article
 

 

This page contains a number of tools you can employ to improve the security of your Zoom meetings. Here are a few quick steps you can take to make it more difficult for uninvited guests to join and participate in your meetings. 

 

BEFORE THE MEETING

Before your meeting begins, consider the below options to reduce the likelihood of unwelcome or disruptive participants joining your event.

1. Generate a unique meeting ID

To join a meeting, participants provide a 9- or 10-digit ID number unique to said meeting. If one of your previous meetings was compromised, a similar disruption could happen again if you use the same ID. Consider using unique IDs instead. Although they are less convenient than using a recurring meeting ID or your personal Zoom room, unique IDs make it harder for previous disruptive participants to join future meetings. If you are posting about a meeting on a public resource (for example, a departmental website), we recommend generating a unique ID. To do so:

  1. Sign into the UT Zoom web portal with your EID

  2. Click 'Schedule a New Meeting'.

  3. Provide all details for your meeting.

  4. Do not select 'Recurring meeting', even if your meeting is part of a series.

  5. Click 'Save'. The page will reload, and the ID should be listed to the right of "Meeting ID".

If your meeting is part of a series, then you'll need to schedule a new meeting for each session. You cannot change an existing meeting's ID.

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2. Require participants to register

You can configure your meeting so individuals can't attend unless they have registered. Participants register for meetings through a custom URL that Zoom generates for you. To register, participants must provide their first name, last name, and email address. Participants won't be able to join unless their name and email address matches the information they initially provided when registering.

  1. Sign into the UT Zoom web portal with your EID

  2. Click the name of the desired meeting.

  3. Click 'Edit this meeting'.

  4. Scroll to the "Registration" section.
     
  5. Check 'Required'.
     
  6. Click 'Save'. The page will then refresh.
     
  7. In the "Invite Attendees" section, you should see a registration URL. To copy a default invitation template message that includes the registration URL, click 'Copy the invitation'. In the resulting window, select 'Copy Meeting Invitation'. You can then paste the message into an email message, Canvas announcement, etc.

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3. Require that all meetings are secured with one security option

All Meetings are now required to be secured with one of the following three security options:

  • Only authenticated users can join meetings
  • Waiting room
  • Require passcode

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4. Require authentication

  • Sign into the UT Zoom web portal with your EID
  • When editing/creating a meeting go to the Security section, check the box to the left of 'Only authenticated users can join'. After you check the box, the following options appear:
    • "UT Austin" - limits meeting or webinar to attendees who authenticate with an active EID or Zoom account that ends in *.utexas.edu, austin.utexas.edu, or utsystem.edu
    • "Sign into Zoom" - attendees can authenticate with any Zoom account 
    • "UT Austin - EID only" - limits meeting or webinar to attendees who have logged in using their SSO login credentials
  • Click 'Save'.
  • Adding authentication exceptions (users)
    • use case -> host wants to add a few attendees external to UT Austin (guest speakers, etc.) yet restrict access to UT Austin Zoom account users
    1. Sign into the UT Zoom web portal with your EID
    2. When editing/creating a meeting go to the Security section
    3. Under Security, make sure Required authentication to join is enabled. See the previous section for more details
    4. Next to Authentication Exception, click Add
    5. Enter the guest participant's name and email address using [EID]@eid.utexas.edu format.
    6. Click Add Participant to add more exceptions
    7. Click Save

 

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5. Waiting Room

  • see Waiting Room
  • By default, the Waiting Room setting is enabled and unlocked.  Meeting hosts can change the Waiting Room setting from “Only guests” to “All participants”, which will help accommodate advising sessions and office hours. However, unlocking the Waiting Room also allows a host to disable the setting, which would automatically allow anyone into the meeting and increase the possibility of disruptions. This is highly discouraged for any meeting format (meetings and academic classes), especially if the meeting link is posted publicly. Please read the following page to learn more about the Waiting Room and how to configure future meetings.

https://zoom.its.utexas.edu/zoom-waiting-room

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6. Passcode

see Passcode

  1. Sign into the UT Zoom web portal with your EID

  2. Click the name of the desired meeting.

     
  3. Click 'Edit this meeting'.

     
  4. Check 'Require meeting passcode'. In the resulting text field, enter the desired passcode.

    When creating meeting passcodes, keep in mind that some videoconferencing equipment can only enter numbers. If some participants might connect from videoconferencing hardware instead of a computer or mobile device, set a numerical passcode to ensure that they can connect without issue.

  5. Click 'Save'.

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7. Require a passcode for participants joining via telephone

  1. ​Sign into the UT Zoom web portal with your EID

  2. Click 'Settings'

  3. Scroll down to find "Require passcode for participants joining via phone", and then click the corresponding toggle button to enable this feature.

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8. Turn off participant video upon entry

You can configure your meeting room so that every participant's video feed is disabled when first joining. However, unless you have manually disabled the user's video feed (see Stop the participant's video), these participants can enable their video feed once they've joined. To do this:

  1. Sign into the UT Zoom web portal with your EID

  2. Click the name of the desired meeting.

     
  3. Click 'Edit this meeting'.

     
  4. Scroll to the "Video" section. To the right of "Participant", click off.

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9. Mute participants upon entry

You can configure your meeting room so that every participant's audio feed is disabled when first joining. However, unless you have manually disabled the user's audio feed (see Mute the participant), these participants can enable their audio feed once they've joined. To do this:

  1. Sign into the UT Zoom web portal with your EID

  2. Click 'Meetings'.

     
  3. Click the name of the desired meeting.

     
  4. Click 'Edit this meeting'.

     
  5. Check 'Mute participants upon entry'.

     
  6. Click 'Save'.

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10. Private chat

Private chat is disabled by default. It can be re-enabled by a user in the web interface.

  1. Sign into the UT Zoom web portal with your EID
  2. Open the Settings menu
  3. Locate In Meeting Settings
  4. Update options under Private Chat

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DURING THE MEETING

If you are mid-meeting and need to handle a disruption (for example, a participant is interrupting the session), there are several ways you can resolve the issue.

Security Icon:  If you're using a Windows, macOS, or Linux Zoom desktop client, you can use Zoom's Security icon feature in your meeting controls to quickly set options (some of which are described below) for a meeting you've started.   See In-meeting security options

NOTE:  Zoom desktop client must be at version 5.4.5 or higher

 

1. Designate a co-host

Depending on the size of your meeting, it may be difficult to both run your session and moderate your participants. A second host can help with these responsibilities while you conduct your meeting. To delegate host privileges to an additional person:

  1. In the Zoom meeting window, click 'Manage Participants'. A tab called 'Participants' should appear on the right.

     
  2. Hover over the name of the desired co-host and select 'More'.

     
  3. Click 'Make Co-Host'.

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2. Mute the participant

To mute a participant:

  1. In the Zoom meeting room window, click 'Manage Participants'. A tab called 'Participants' should appear on the right.

     
  2. Hover over the name of the desired participant and select 'More'.

     
  3. Click 'Mute'.

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3. Stop the participant's video

To disable a participant's video feed:

  1. In the Zoom meeting room window, click 'Manage Participants'. A tab called 'Participants' should appear on the right.

     
  2. Hover over the name of the desired participant and select 'More'.

     
  3. Click 'Stop Video'.

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4. Remove the participant

To remove a participant from the meeting:

  1. In the Zoom meeting room window, click 'Manage Participants'. A tab called 'Participants' should appear on the right.

     
  2. Hover over the name of the desired participant and select 'More'.

     
  3. Click 'Remove'.

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5. Lock the meeting

Once a meeting is locked, no one else can join. To lock your meeting:

  1. In the Zoom meeting room window, click 'Manage Participants'. A tab called 'Participants' should appear on the right.

     
  2. Click 'More' in the bottom right.

     
  3. Click 'Lock Meeting'.

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6. Other Tips

  • Turn off file transfer: In-meeting file transfer allows people to share files through the in-meeting chat. Toggle this off to keep the chat from getting bombarded with unsolicited pics, GIFs, memes, and other content.
  • Turn off annotation: You and your attendees can doodle and mark up content together using annotations during screen share. You can disable the annotation feature in your Zoom settings to prevent people from writing all over the screens.
  • Disable private chat: Zoom has in-meeting chat for everyone or participants can message each other privately. Restrict participants’ ability to chat with one another while your event is going on and cut back on distractions. This is really to prevent anyone from getting unwanted messages during the meeting.
  • Remove unwanted or disruptive participants From that Participants menu, you can mouse over a participant’s name, and several options will appear, including Remove. Click that to kick someone out of the meeting.
  • Allow removed participants to rejoin: When you do remove someone, they can’t rejoin the meeting. But you can toggle your settings to allow removed participants to rejoin, in case you boot the wrong person.

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