How to Host Safe Zoom Meetings and Prevent Zoombombing

Here is a quick, short list of what you need to know about hosting safe Zoom meetings that won’t get joined, ruined and “hacked” by video intruders. This is especially important if you’re hosting a large Zoom meeting, with more than 20 people and a long list of email addresses of people you may not know. (If it’s just you and a few friends, there’s not much to worry about.) All this is explained right here, in simple language. More than that, you should learn know how to host a Zoom meeting…a secure Zoom meeting, one that doesn’t let outsiders in.  That way, you can help others run safe video conference meetings using Zoom too. Setting up a Zoom account is easy. Go to Zoom.us and click the button that says, Sign up. It’s Free . Once you have an account, click Schedule a Meeting , with you as the host, so you can learn the security features. Holding a safe, Zoom videoconference meeting is like throwing a special, private event in your home. Here’s what it all boils down to: Running a secure Zoom meeting is just like that. After all, YOU ARE THE HOST! You determine what happens. If you follow the steps below, you should have a totally safe, secure and problem-free Zoom meeting. First requirement: Make sure you’re using the latest version of Zoom! You can run a meeting on an older version of Zoom, but the newer security protections aren’t there. Don’t run a meeting unless you’re sure you’re using a recent version. How to find out if yours is up to date? Log in and click on the very top-right corner of the Zoom home page (your face or your initial) to get a list of options. Click “check for updates.” Next, on the Zoom homepage, click on the blue “Schedule” button. On the Meeting Schedule pop-up page, you’ll take care of a few security points BEFORE inviting any participants. Zoom has made this more secure by default, but check this anyway. Your meeting is set up. If you follow the first three steps, you’ll keep out nearly all wannabee meeting crashers. Why? They won’t have the Meeting ID and password you sent out.  Still, once the meeting starts, you can prevent things from going wrong. Next, practice making security decisions when your meeting starts. Here’s how: Back on the homepage, click on the orange “New Meeting” button. You should see your face immediately. Move your cursor to the bottom and a black, horizontal menu bar will show. Click on the Security button and on the pop-up screen, make these security decisions: Again, if you feel 100% comfortable with your group, you can enable chat. Tens of millions of Americans are now using Zoom for business meetings, education and online social gatherings—from elementary classrooms and music lessons to virtual bridal showers and yoga classes. Zoom wasn’t always so widespread. Even though Zoom was launched in 2013 and many businesses had been using it for a few years, it was a well-kept secret from the public. Then the coronavirus epidemic hit and it upended the whole world. And it sent Zoom usage, Zoom meetings and Zoom participants—in a word—zooming off the charts. That was good news. Soon, there was bad news. Although Zoom was happy with the usage and attention, it wasn’t prepared for what happened next. Major security issues. Suddenly, there were reports of hundreds of Zoom meetings being invaded, disrupted and ruined by intruders. Pornography would suddenly show up on the screen, or vile, or hateful language would come spewing out from someone who wasn’t invited. It caught everyone, including Zoom, by surprise. That bad act was quickly given a name: Zoombombing . Zoom scrambled to add some much-needed security features—but those features are not all automatic or set as defaults. Therefore, if you’re “hosting” a meeting—you are the teacher, or the online party thrower, or the VP of marketing—you’re the one who must take steps to prevent someone from Zoombombing your meeting. If you follow the steps we covered above, you should have little or no problems hosting a Zoom meeting with zero interruptions.