Written by: Jay H.
Zoom has introduced new security features to combat disruptive meeting participants, in conjunction with other tools to keep meetings secure.
New Security Tools
Suspend Participant Activities
The new security features include hosts’ option to temporarily pause their meeting and remove a disruptive participant. Hosts can stop all video, audio, in-meeting chat, annotation, screen sharing, and recording by clicking “Suspend Participant Activities†under the security icon. Breakout Rooms will also end.
Hosts will then be able to report a participant and include any details and screenshots. Once submitted, the offending user will be removed from the meeting, and Zoom’s Trust & Safety team will be alerted. The hosts can then resume their meeting by re-enabling the video and chat features they wish to use. Once the meeting ends, Zoom will send the hosts an email for more information.
This Suspend Participant Activities security measure is enabled for all free and paid Zoom users.
Report by Participants
Reporting users was already an option for hosts, but now meeting participants can also report disruptive users by clicking on the top-left Security badge. Account owners and admins can enable or disable this feature in their web settings.
Both of these new security features are available across all Zoom platforms, including desktop and mobile apps.
At-Risk Meeting Notifier
Zoom has had problems with disruptive participants crashing Zoom meetings, in an act dubbed as ‘Zoom-bombing.’ To combat this, Zoom released a new internal tool that scans public social media posts for Zoom meeting links. It will automatically notify the hosts via email and give them recommended actions to take when it discovers an at-risk meeting. This advice includes creating a new session and enabling security features. Zoom warns that should hosts receive an email, “it’s critical to take action or risk having your meeting disrupted.”
Zoom notes that one of the best ways to keep meetings secure is to never share meeting IDs or passcodes on any public website, including social media.
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