Zoom Security: How to prevent Zoom Bombings (2024)

If the meeting’s join information is going to be posted publicly, the best option for securing your meeting is to switch to a Zoom Webinar license. Zoom webinars are different than meetings and only allow attendees limited privileges (no camera, microphone, etc.) by default which lessens the impact an uninvited attendee could have. You can see more information about price and purchase options on the Zoom Request Form. Users interested in renting a webinar license for a specific event can contact UAB eLearning for up to 500 attendees or University Relationsfor up to 5,000 attendees.

Registration

With this method, you would post the Zoom registration link publicly instead of the actual join link. You can then change the registration settings to include customized questions and even manually accept which of the registered users you want to gain access to the meeting before it ever begins. Read more about Zoom registration here.

Authentication

If your desired attendees are all internal to UAB, you can require that users authenticate with their BlazerID and Password in order to gain access to your meeting. Users that are not signed in when clicking your join link will be prompted to sign in to their account. Read more about requiring authentication here.

Zoom requires that all users either enable a passcode or use the waiting room for meetings. Choose one of the options below.

Passcode

Adding a passcode is one of the easiest ways to prevent uninvited users as many of them are randomly trying different numbers and may stumble across yours. Adding a passcode makes it so that everyone you directly invited has a direct link to your meeting, but anyone joining by typing in the meeting ID will also have to know and provide the meeting passcode. Learn more about passcodes here.

Waiting Room

Enabling the waiting room adds a layer between users and your meeting that you can control. This option is best when you know who you are expecting and can only allow users you recognize into your meeting. There are also more advanced controls you can set up for your account to let certain users bypass your waiting room. Learn more about the waiting room here.

Security Tab (Participant permissions)

Finally, once your meeting has begun, it is important to set up the in-room security settings. You can decide if participants can unmute, chat, share their screen, etc. All of these settings can be found in the Security tab on the Zoom toolbar, just check/uncheck which abilities you want attendees to have. Learn more about in-room security settings here.