Advice on Zoom settings to avoid “Zoombombing”

In the last few days you may have heard of “Zoom Trolls,” “Zoom Party Crashers” or “Zoombombing.” News outlets such as Forbes, the New York Times, and Yahoo News are reporting how publicized Zoom meetings and webinars are being interrupted by random people playing music, shouting slurs, and, in some cases, displaying pornography.

Zoom has different options to combat these intrusions such as managing screen sharing and participants, setting up waiting rooms where participants are pre-screened, and requiring meeting passwords. While these options help, they also restrict functionality and cause more user interaction.

The Emory Zoom Team recommends that if you are concerned with unwanted users, you should require meeting passwords. The steps for setting up meeting passwords are as follows:

1. Visit your Emory’s Zoom home page press Log In.
2. Enter your Emory ID/Password and press Login.
3. Go to Settings.
4. Go to the Meeting tab and verify the password settings that you would like to use for your meetings and webinars are enabled.
5. If the setting is disabled, click on the Status toggle to enable it. If a verification dialog is displayed, choose Turn On to verify the change.
   Note: If the option is grayed out, it is disabled.
6. For more information about editing a password for current meetings click here.
7. For more information about editing a password for current webinars click here.
8. For more information about editing a password for current Personal Meeting ID (PMI) click here.

If you typically use Zoom for smaller meetings, a less intrusive option would be to set up a Waiting Room. In a Waiting Room, the host approves of each attendee as they log in. The steps for setting up a Waiting Room are as follows:

1. Sign in to your Emory Zoom web portal (emory.zoom.us or emoryhealthcare.zoom.us)
2. In the navigation menu, click Settings.
3. On the Meeting tab, navigate to the Waiting Room option under In-Meeting (Advanced) and verify that the setting is enabled.
4. Select who you want to admit to the waiting room.
   • All participants: All participants joining your meeting will be admitted to the waiting room.
   • Guest participants only: Only participants who are not on your Zoom account or are not logged in will be admitted to the waiting room. If not logged in, they will have an option to log in.
     Note: If Guest participants only is enabled, you can also enable the option to allow internal participants (users on the account), to admit guests from the waiting room if the host is not in the meeting.

If you have any questions, please contact videoservices [at] emory [dot] edu.