Remember Zoom bombing? It was all over the news when schools and businesses went remote during the pandemic, causing Zoom to implement features to stop people or bots from engaging in disruptive behaviors. Unfortunately, with social and political conflict at a high level, zoom-bombing attempts are making a comeback. Here are eight security options you can use to keep bombers out and stop them from ruining your online meetings and virtual events.

Eject Zoom Bombers Instantly

1. Learn how to kick someone out.
   First, know that you can always expel a disruptive person or a bot with a quick click of a button. If you aren’t sure how to do it, they will be able to disrupt the meeting a lot longer while you figure it out. So memorize these instructions: to kick a person or bot out, go to the Participants pane, hover over the name until the More option appears, and choose Remove. (To identify a bot among participants, look at participant names — bots are often labeled as "Meeting Notetaker," "AI Notetaker," "Read.ai Bot," etc.)

Prevent Unauthorized Entry

2. Use a unique meeting ID, instead of your Personal Meeting ID (PMI).
   Your PMI never changes, which is convenient for recurrent or open/unscheduled meetings, like office hours. The downside is that once someone has your PMI, they can join any session using your PMI as the meeting ID. Just as unique passwords protect your online accounts, unique meeting IDs protect your Zoom meetings. So create a unique meeting ID for each session, and make it available only to invited participants.
    
3. Create invitation-only meetings.
   When you specify that Zoom should only admit invited participants, people who get their hands on the meeting still can’t get in. To limit admission, you must first enable the option in your account: sign into pitt.zoom.us, click Settings > Security, and turn on “Only authenticated users can join meetings.” Then, schedule a meeting, making sure to click “Require authentication to join” from the security options. The @pitt.edu profile will limit the meeting to those with Pitt credentials. (To limit the session to specific people, create/add an Outlook calendar invitation from the Manage My Meeting window and add your students or attendees. As a bonus, this will add the session to their Outlook calendar, too.)
    
4. Enable a Waiting Room or Lock Meeting.
   Zoom bombers often sneak in after a meeting has begun, when people are less likely to notice them. So it’s helpful to limit access to the meeting using a waiting room. Alternately, you can lock a meeting, so no late comers can enter once you’ve started (including invited participants). To enable a waiting room in-meeting or to lock the meeting, open the Participants pane and chose More > Enable Waiting Room / Lock Meeting.

Stop Disruptive Behavior

5. Mute all participants upon entry.
   Having open mics can be a problem, even when no one is trying to disrupt the meeting, let alone when someone shouts offensive or disruptive statements. If open discussion isn’t required, mute people by default. You have the option to let people unmute themselves, or you can manually unmute people. Comments and question can also be submitted in the chat, or participants can use the Raise Hand feature. You can also mute all participants during the meeting from the Participants pane.
    
6. Disable screen sharing for all participants.
   Don’t give people the opportunity to hijack your meeting by taking over the display. Select this option when creating the meeting by selecting Who can share? > Only Host from the meeting options. You can enable this option during the meeting using the in-meeting controls (by clicking the arrow next to the Share Screen icon). 
    
7. Turn off file transfer and don't enable annotations.
   File transfer allows people to share files through the in-meeting chat, while annotations let participants markup content while screen sharing. Unfortunately, Zoom bombers can use these tools to draw offensive words or images on screen or to drop inappropriate GIFs into the chat. Disable file transfers when creating the meeting. As of April 2025, screen annotations are automatically disabled for participants; only enable it if you know you’ll need to use it.
    
8. Disable private chat.
   Zoom chat lets participants message the leader, the entire group, or each other privately. Private chats can be distracting. Even worse, it opens the door to personal harassment from one attendee to another ... and you won’t even see it. You can disable private chatting when creating the meeting or from the Chat panel in-meeting.

Keep Your Meetings Safe

When setting up Zoom meetings, always consider the sensitivity of the topics discussed and the participants who should be involved. Then, you can appropriately identify what security settings should be in place to limit access. While some of these tips may be overkill for small, private meetings, they are best practices for larger or more sensitive sessions. Requiring a few extra clicks to set up and enter an online event is far better than having a sensitive meeting compromised. For additional guidance on securing meetings please review the University’s Zoom Security Guide. 

Take a moment now to review your meeting settings to ensure a secure and smooth experience. Whether you’re holding a training or teaching session, hosting an online event, or conducting a public meeting, make sure you take control of who gets into your session and what they can do.

-- By Karen Beaudway, Pitt IT Blogger