Zoom Security

When scheduling a meeting, you can configure security settings to:

• Prevent participants from joining the meeting before a Host or Alternative Host arrives.
• Require users to authenticate themselves
• Require a meeting passcode
• Require meeting participants to register before joining your meeting

You can configure any or all of these options.

On the Schedule Meetings page/screen, under Meeting Options:

• Clear Enable join before host to prevent participants from joining the meeting until a Host or Alternative Host arrives.
• Check Require Authentication to Join to ensure all participants are logged into UW Zoom accounts. Learn more about the Require Authentication to Join option. 
• Check Require meeting passcode to require passcode authentication when users enter the meeting. Passcodes can be up to 10 characters. By default, the meeting invitation will include the passcode for participants, as well as a Join Meeting link that will enter the passcode automatically for invited participants. These settings can be changed in your User Settings in the Zoom web portal at washington.zoom.us.
• Check Required Registration learn more about meeting registration options

Co-hosts can help facilitate user management, answer questions, and keep an eye on larger meetings or classes.

Co-hosts have all of the same permissions and controls as hosts in a UW Zoom meeting. Having a co-host can allow another person, such as a teaching assistant, to help run the meeting or class. Co-hosts can help manage users and user permissions, answer questions in chat, and keep an eye on larger meetings or classes. Note: The following instructions don’t apply to the Zoom app in canvas. Co-hosts should be added through the UW Zoom web portal.

Set a co-host when scheduling a meeting

1. Sign in to washington.zoom.us and click on the meetings tab on the left side of the screen, or log into the Zoom application itself.
2. Click on the Schedule a New Meeting button, or in the Zoom application click on the Schedule button.
3. In the Alternative hosts field, enter the UW email address of co-host. Alternative hosts must be a current UW faculty, staff, or student.  

Set a co-host on a meeting that is in progress

1. Click on the Participants icon in the in-meeting toolbar that appears at the bottom of the Zoom meeting.
2. Using your mouse, hover over the name of the user you want to make co-host.
3. Click the More dropdown that appears to the right of the users name, and select the Make Co-Host option.

You can prevent participants from sharing their screen unless you have assigned them the role of Host, Co-Host, or Alternative Host.

1. At the bottom of the Zoom meeting, click the small arrow to the right of the green Share button.
2. From the menu, select Advanced Sharing Options.
3. Under Who can share? select Only Host.
4. Close out of the Advanced Sharing Options menu.

Via the Participants window, you can keep participants muted, enable the waiting room, lock the meeting to additional participants, or remove participants.

1. At the bottom of the Zoom meeting, click the Participants button to open a list of participants.
2. At the bottom-right corner of the list of participants, click “More” to open a menu.
3. Toggle the options as desired:
   • Clear Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves to ensure that only hosts can unmute participants
   • Check Put attendee in waiting room upon entry to require that hosts manually admit new participants rather than having them join the meeting automatically. Learn more about the Zoom Waiting Room feature.
   • Check Lock meeting to prevent any additional participants from joining the meeting after this option is selected.

Remove participants who are behaving inappropriately

1. At the bottom of the Zoom meeting, click the Participants button to open a list of participants.
2. In the participant list, hover your cursor over the name of the participant you wish to remove, then click the More button that appears to the right.
3. From the bottom of the menu, select Remove.
4. A dialog box will open asking you to confirm your choice. Click OK to remove the participant.

Pause Zoom meeting and remove participants

Hosts and co-hosts can temporarily pause the meeting and remove a disruptive participant. To pause the meeting, click the Host tools icon, then click Suspend Participant Activities.

All video, audio, in-meeting chat, annotation, screen sharing, and recording during that time will stop, and Breakout Rooms will close.

You will be asked if you want to report a user from your meeting, share any details, and optionally include a screenshot. Once you click Submit, the reported user will be removed from your meeting, and Zoom’s Trust & Safety team will be notified. You may resume your meeting by individually re-enabling the features you want to use. Zoom will also send you an email after the meeting to gather more information.

To enhance meeting security, Zoom requires the waiting room to be enabled for all meetings (or to use a passcode, formerly known as password). To simplify the process for allowing people with a UW NetID to join a meeting, you can set an option for them to join the meeting without waiting to be admitted from the waiting room.

1. Log in to your Zoom account at https://washington.zoom.us.
2. In the left sidebar, click Settings.
3. Waiting Room is the second option on the page.
4. Under Waiting Room Options, click Edit Options.
5. In the section titled Who should go in the waiting room?, you may see Everyone selected. Select the third option: Users who are not in your account and not part of the allowed domains. When you select this option, a field appears. If you do not see uw.edu, enter it. This allows people logged in with a UW NetID to bypass the waiting room, regardless of which type of UW Zoom account they have (Standard vs. HIPAA-compliant).
6. Under Who can admit participants from the waiting room?, if Host and co-hosts only is not already selected, select it.
   
7. Click the blue Continue button.

1. StepsActions
1. Log in to your Zoom account at https://washington.zoom.us.
2. In the left sidebar, click Settings.
3. Under Meetings, click In Meeting (Advanced).
4. Scroll up to Allow participants to rename themselves (two settings above In Meeting Advanced).
5. On the right, toggle on the setting. Participants in any meeting you now schedule will be able to rename themselves.

1. StepsActions
1. In your active meeting, in the toolbar below the screen, click Participants.
2. At the bottom of the participants window, click More.
3. Hover your cursor over Allow participants to rename themselves. When you see the blue highlight, click the text. A checkmark will appear next to the text indicating that the feature is turned on. Your meeting participants can now rename themselves.

Passcodes can be shared, so this works best with smaller meetings.
When you set a passcode on a meeting, attendees must enter the passcode for the meeting before they are able to join. Passcodes can be shared or posted to the internet, so passcodes work best for smaller meetings or classes.

1. Sign in to washington.zoom.us and click on the meetings tab on the left side of the screen, or log into the Zoom application itself.
2. Click on the Schedule a New Meeting button, or in the Zoom application click on the Schedule button.
3. In the “Meeting passcode” section, click the checkbox next to Require meeting passcode. Use the auto-generated passcode that appears in the text box to the right or set your own custom passcode.

When you require a passcode when scheduling new meetings, users will either enter the passcode when prompted or use a meeting link that includes an encrypted passcode.

When you embed a passcode in a meeting invitation link for one-click join, participants with this custom link can bypass the step of entering the passcode manually. If this feature is disabled, the link to the meeting will not include an encrypted passcode, so participants will need to know the code in order to access the meeting.

For comparison, here is what these two formats look like:

Embedded link:

https://washington.zoom.us/j/944111234?pwd=XYkM22LTVXpxRHROaFdZTTdhR0dUUT09

Link with separate passcode (unembedded):

https://washington.zoom.us/j/944111234
passcode: 1234

Notes:

• A passcode does not guarantee that unwanted participants cannot join your meeting. Meeting links can be copied, pasted, and shared with people you have not explicitly invited. Anyone who has the link with a passcode can enter the meeting. For a more failsafe method of only admitting invited participants to a meeting, consider turning on the Zoom waiting room.
• Avoid posting passcodes or meeting links with embedded passcodes in public-facing spaces, such as websites or social media. If meeting information needs to be shared with a public audience, consider using Zoom’s registration option.
• For better passcode security, use multiple types of characters (capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers, special characters) and avoid predictable sequences (abcd, 1111, etc.)

1. Sign into https://washington.zoom.us.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Under Security, scroll down to Require a password when scheduling new meetings.
4. Toggle the switch on if necessary. This will ensure that each new meeting you schedule has a passcode enabled by default.
   Note: You will still be able to turn passcodes off for individual meetings if desired, but will need to enable a Waiting Room for any meeting without a passcode.
   

This allows users with the link to join your meeting without being prompted for a passcode.

1. Sign into https://washington.zoom.us.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Under Security, scroll down to Embed password in invite link for one-click join and toggle this switch on if it is not enabled already.
   
   Now when you schedule a meeting, a unique code will be embedded in the link you send to meeting participants.

You will need to enable a passcode for each individual meeting that you scheduled previously. For previously scheduled recurring meetings, you only need to do this once for the series. Remember to resend calendar invitations for any meetings you previously scheduled in order to include the passcode.

1. Sign into https://washington.zoom.us.
2. Go to Meetings.
3. Locate the meeting you want to add a passcode to and click the Meeting title to select and open the meeting.
4. Scroll down and click Edit this Meeting.
5. Scroll down and next to Meeting Password, select Require meeting password (when you select, Zoom will automatically assign a number).
   
6. Click Save.
7. To the right of Invite link, click Copy Invitation.
8. Click Copy Meeting Invitation. The text is copied to the clipboard.
9. Add this new information to your meeting invitation and resend so that meeting participants have the correct link.

If you primarily schedule Zoom meetings through the Microsoft Outlook plugin, updating passcodes and other meeting settings through the plugin will require a few unique steps. For instructions on updating meeting settings in the Outlook plugin, please visit the following Zoom Support guide: Microsoft Outlook plugin (desktop) | Zoom Support