Collaboration

About Zoom Security at UniSA

Zoom meetings are used in a wide range of contexts across the University. The default settings are to balance ease of student access with security. Zoom sessions join links are mostly shared within Learnonline course sites which require students to log in. There is a range of tools and settings available to increase the visibility of participants and control who attends a session. 

• Require authentication, participants can not attend as anonymous.
• Require a meeting password - Set a password for your guests to enter. Good increase in security, but requires you to distribute the password.
• Use the waiting room - Control when your guests are admitted to the meeting. The host needs to be attentive to monitoring the waiting room.
• Record to local drive rather than to cloud.
• Zoom recommends using a unique meeting rather than your Personal Meeting ID for public events.
• For a private meeting, lock the meeting once attendees have joined. Best for smaller meetings.

Note about Zoom Bombing: Zoom Bombing is where a participant shares their screen, typically with inappropriate material or posts inappropriate material to the Chat.  In UniSA's case this has not been an issue as our default Screen sharing option is set to "Host Only", in addition the participants are typically known.  If you are concerned about behavior management, the settings below will help make your sessions more secure. To instantly stop a session, put the meeting on hold.

How to Require Authentication

This is also useful if recording student attendance is required.

1. Go to unisa.zoom.us and check this feature is enabled in your profile then apply to the meeting
2. Settings > Meeting (Advanced) > scroll right down to authenticated users > turn on
3. Locate the Meeting in the Meetings tab > edit the meeting
4. Select Only authenticated users can join

How to Require a Password

Requiring a password is a straightforward way to increase the security of your meeting. You can send your chosen password to your attendees via email or chat.

1. Open your Zoom application and log into Zoom.
2. Click on the Schedule icon.
3. Under Options, click Require meeting password. Choosing a complex password will maximise security.
4. Provide the link and password to participants in separate links increases security.

Note: A password can be added to an existing meeting.  Locate the meeting in the Zoom App or Web Portal and click Edit.

How to Use the Waiting Room

The waiting room allows the host to vet participants and control when they join the meeting. 

Zoom has a guide on how to use this feature: Waiting Rooms. It needs to be turned on in settings, this can be done before or during a meeting.

Important: If this feature is enabled keep the Manage Participants tab open to monitor the waiting room.

How to Lock a Meeting

1. Start the meeting and wait for all participants to join
2. Open Manage Participants at the bottom of your Zoom window.
3. At the base of the Participants box, select More, then click the button Lock Meeting.

How to Mute or Remove a Participants

They might be being deliberately disruptive or simply be unaware their audio is on.

1. Open Manage Participants from the toolbar.
2. Hover over the participant's name and Select Mute or select Mute All to mute all participants.

If a participant is being deliberately disruptive consider these additional steps.

3. Open the dropdown menu at the bottom of the Manage Participants pop-up More. Untick 'Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves and Allow Participants to Rename Themselves.'

4. To remove a participant, click More next to their name and select Remove.

Require a Password on your Personal Meeting Room

To prevent uninvited contact via your Personal Meeting ID, add a password which you can provide to people you will have arranged meetings with. 

1. Check your Zoom Desktop Client App is 5.0.1 or later
2. Sign into unisa.zoom.us
3. Open Meetings Tab on left side menu
4. Select Personal Meeting Room tab at the top
5. Scroll down and click Edit this Meeting
6. Tick the box for Require meeting password. You can customise the password
7. Save

Note: this will be different to the passwords generated when creating a meeting on Learnonline. Participants will receive the password as part of the link when joining from learnonline.

Update your Desktop App

Follow the guide to checking your version and updating to the most current App. In addition to new features, there are security improvements. For example 16.4.10 onwards has a Security icon in the toolbar for easy access to the controls.