I have an update for you from last week’s comments regarding Zoom Bombing. First, I apologize as I was told by several of you that I did not provide a link to Zoom; although, they found it by googling. They were correct so here you go, Zoom.us.
Next, Zoom has been busy this week. They have changed several of the default settings in the program to make it pretty much bomb proof. You can change the settings they set but I believe that would be senseless. They also set a couple of other defaults.
First, passcodes are set to be a requirement for each meeting. When someone logs into a meeting, they have to enter a password that has been sent with their invitation. They will not have to enter it if they use the URL provided by email, they only need to click the link to join. However, it can no longer be read in plain text. The password is coded in the link. There is also a separate passcode for a telephone dial-in. Keep in mind the passcode was available before but it was not set to “required” in meetings. All of these except the last one below were available in the beginning but they were all defaulted to “Off.”
Next, and I think a fantastic move to set as a default is the Waiting Room. An attendee joins the meeting but they are required to stay in a virtual waiting room until admitted by the Host of the meeting. When they join in the Waiting Room the host will see their name and then click a button to admit them. Yes, it will cause the host an extra click per attendee but that way you can keep the “riffraff” out. If the host misses them after the meeting starts, they can still see what is going on but will not be able to participate other than watch and listen. Remember they did use the passcode. They should be OK to be allowed to view the meeting. So, no security issue at that point.
The host also has the option to click on a person in the meeting and boot them out if they get a bit rambunctious. Another nice feature; although, I hope you rarely have to use it.
The last thing I want to mention today is the Security Button which has been added to the main screen in Zoom. This offers several features but the one I like is you can “Lock meeting” which makes it so that no one is allowed in once you click that button.
Now, a couple of quick suggestions from my experience with the new Zoom. First, uninstall the old version then install the new version you download from Zoom.us. They do not mention this but I found it worked much better that way. There are some settings you can look at and change in the application. However, many more settings are available if you log into the site Zoom.us and set them there. I do not know why all the settings are not built into the application itself. Maybe that is coming this week?
