Zoom – A Great Solution … If Set Up Properly!

Many folks, including myself, are utilizing the Zoom platform for web conferencing as more and more employers are urging their employees to work from home and minimize leaving their houses to come to the office.

But, as with all things these days, every great solution comes with its challenges and learning curves … and Zoom is no different.

Many users are sending out alerts on social media pages warning other Zoom participants to use extra caution when setting up virtual sessions (whether they be a business meeting or a personal happy hour with friends).

The CEO of Zoom, Eric S. Yuan, spoke out regarding these recent breaches and was very honest about the fact that “we (Zoom) moved to fast … and we had some missteps.” His company and team of great collaborators realized a need and worked very hard to make sure that Zoom was available for all of us when we needed it most. So instead of bashing him for a mistake, I embrace his honesty and will continue to utilize the platform — but also make sure that I help my fellow Zoom-ers use it as securely as possible.

Here are some tips to help make sure your Zoom sessions are kept private, but are still a great solution for you and your teams:

1. Change the screen share settings to “Host Only.” By selecting this option when you first set up a meeting, you can make sure that only participants authorized by the host can share their screen within the meeting.
2. Disable “Join before Host” Option. Although this is one of my favorite tools within Zoom because I am notorious for running late for internal meetings, this isn’t always a secure way to let your co-workers join. Zoom has a great waiting room option that will let your participants join a meeting but be placed on hold until you officially start the meeting.
3. Enable “Co-Host” so you can use a moderator within the meeting. Accram hosts numerous of meetings and webinars over Zoom each month, so we have learned the best option for us is to have two hosts, which allows our CEO to present, and I am also there to assist with muting participants as needed, answering questions in the chat-box as well as welcoming attendees as they come into the meeting.
4. Disable the “File Transfer” Option. Let’s be honest, you can never be too safe whenever you are online, so this is a good habit to have. Just like you wouldn’t open an attachment from a stranger (I hope), you should not allow participants to send files within your session. These meetings are built for video conferencing but not really collaborating. If you need to collaborate or work on a file together, I definitely recommend Microsoft Teams as a better option.
5. Disable “Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin.” This feature is actually one that I never thought of in the past but in these times of the bad guys having a free-for-all with people using video conferencing more than ever, it is a good idea to make it so a bad guy cannot go back into your meeting once being asked to leave (or once your lovely moderator kicks them out).

If we all continue to work together and try to make things a bit better for everyone, we will make it through this. That is why the Accram team and I are committed to keeping you as informed as possible!

Questions? Comments? Or even need help navigating through Zoom? Feel free to contact our team of remote solution experts and we will be happy to help make sure that you and your company continue to be secure when utilizing our recommended third-party solutions!

Be Safe and Take Care!

Carrie Anne Röethler is the client relations manager at Accram, Inc.