Zoombombing

With the exponential increase of Zoom web conference usage across the country, nefarious types have decided to “gate crash” on some Zoom meetings. Although media outlets have been quick to publish these disruptions, so-called "Zoombombing" is rare considering the totality of Zoom calls — nearly 60,000 have been conducted at Ohio State since March 1. The following measures can be implemented to help mitigate disruptions to your meetings.

Each individual should evaluate the potential risk or reward of initiating these settings changes. If you would like assistance adjusting your Zoom settings or have questions regarding the implications of making the following changes, feel free to email the Fisher ITS Helpdesk at helpdesk@fisher.osu.edu. The Fisher ITS Helpdesk will pair you with a Zoom subject matter expert and help you implement the right security measure fit.

Prevent Zoombombing in your courses
  1. Consider using a password on your meeting, then publish this password in your Carmen course just for your students to see.  
  2. Consider enabling authenticated users only, this requires a user to either be registered through Ohio State or a registered Zoom user in order to join a meeting. Not only does this help restrict users in your call to OSU students, this measure helps track those who may have joined without authorization. 
  3. Mute participants upon entry, make sure the setting is turned on. Hosts can utilize this function in meeting controls to disable unmuting until the host is ready for discussion. 
  4. Host only sharing turned to “on” (Ohio State default now). This can be changed by a host during the conference. 
  5. Turn off, “Participants can annotate”. This can be activated if needed. 
  6. Chat settings: Turn off private chats. Consider turning off “Allow meeting participants to send a message visible to all participants” 
  7. Do not allow "Join before host" when setting up your meeting; or use the waiting room feature to filter only non-authenticated users. 
  8. Once your meeting has started and all the participants have entered, consider locking your meeting. (This feature is found under Manage Participants, More) 

Avoid using your Zoom Personal Room to conduct Zoom calls and do not publish links openly online. Post meeting links in Carmen Canvas via a module and instruct students to access Zoom through Carmen Canvas.

If an authorized participant become disruptive, the host may place the participant “on hold” or remove them from the meeting. Whether or not the participant can return to the meeting after removal may also be adjusted in the settings menu. 

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