Zoom Security and Privacy Settings for Remote Workers

 With the global pandemic stretching on for months now, most organizations have had to carry on “normal” business operations under remote circumstances and settings. This means that most communication is being carried out remotely. Zoom video conferencing has been by far one, if not the most, popular online video conferencing platforms. It boasts a wide array of features and is relatively easy to use. Security of remote workers with any software solution is especially important. In this post, we will look at Zoom Security and Privacy Settings for Remote Workers and see how these can help to keep your end users safe and secure while using the video conferencing platform.

What is Zoom?

Zoom is a commercial online videoconferencing tool that helps to support meeting and collaboration activities of your organization while making use of a distributed remote workforce.

Zoom allows remote workers to connect to an online meeting of your business using a phone, tablet, or computer. What benefits does it tout?

• Remote workers can connect to the platform and use a simple mobile device to participate effectively in online meetings
• This can be done with or without video. Remote end users can choose to send video or not if they want
• Multiple participants are shown on the screen at once and features two different views to see everyone or see only the active speaker
• The camera will automatically switch to the person speaking
• Participants, organizers, or both, depending on settings can share their screen to collaborate and carry out meetings using presentations

Zoom meetings provide powerful videoconferencing platform

Zoom Meeting Organizer

Zoom accounts have a meeting organizer or the one who manages and configures the Zoom account. This is generally the person that schedules the meetings and invites others to attend.

Scheduling a meeting

Once the organization’s account settings have been configured, the meeting organizer can schedule a meeting. When a meeting is scheduled, a meeting ID is generated for the meeting. Additionally, each meeting will by default have a password for the meeting.

For security purposes, each meeting that your organization holds, it is a good idea to generate a unique meeting ID and password for each meeting. This helps to ensure that if a single meeting ID and password is compromised, this will not affect all meetings, only a specific meeting ID.

Designate someone as a security attendant

For each meeting, especially larger meetings, it is a good idea to have someone designated to watch the Zoom meeting. For this responsibility, the security attendant for the meeting should be designated the Host or the Co-host role.

This person will need to be alert to those joining the meeting and can quickly handle any disruptions that may arise during a scheduled business meeting. The security attendant can join early and screen and admit the attendees as they join the meeting.

As has been experienced in the past with the so-called “Zoom bombings“, the security attendant will watch for disruptive individuals, inappropriate images, or profile pictures. He may need to mute an individual or stop an individual’s video feed.

Zoom Security and Privacy Settings for Remote Workers

The following settings are recommended Zoom security settings at the account level that can help to ensure the meetings are both secure as well as privacy is maintained for your remote workers.

Meeting > Schedule Meeting
Host video	Off	Optional
Participants video	Off	Optional
Audio Type	Computer Aduio	Audio
Join before host	Off	Required
Use Personal Meeting ID (PMI) when scheduling a meeting	Off	Required
Use Personal Meeting ID (PMI) when starting an instant meeting	Off	Required
Only authenticated users can join meetings	Off	Optional
Only authenticated users can join meetings from Web client	Off	Optional
Require a password when scheduling new meetings	On	Required
Require a password for instant meetings	On	Required
Required a password for Personal Meeting ID (PMI)	On	Required
Embed password in meeting link for one-click join	Off	Optional
Require password for participants joining by phone	On	Required
Upcoming meeting reminder	Off	Optional
Meeting > In Meeting (Basic)
Require Encryption for 3rd Party Endpoints (SIP/H.323)	On	Optional
Chat	Off	Optional
Prevent participants from saving chat	On	Required, if chat is on
Private chat	Off	Required
Auto saving chats	Off	Required
Play sound when participants join or leave	Off	Optional
File transfer	Off	Required
Feedback to Zoom	Off	Required
Display end-of-meeting experience feedback survey	Off	Required
Co-host	On	Required
Pollinig	Off	Optional
Allow host to put attendee on hold	On	Required
Always show meeting control toolbar	On	Optional
Show Zoom windows during screen share	Off	Optional
Screen sharing	On	Required.  Only the host is allowed to use screen sharing
Who can share?	Host Only	Required
Who can start sharing when someone else is sharing?	Host Only	Required
Disabled desktop/screen share for users	Off	Optional
Annotation	Off	Required
Whiteboard	Off	Required
Remote Control	Off	Required
Nonverbal feedback	On	Optional
Allow removed participants to rejoin	Off	Optional
Allow participants to rename themselves	On	Optional
Hide participant profile pictures in a meeting	On	Required
Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced)
Report participants to Zoom	On	Required
Breakout room	On	Optional
Allow host to assign participants to breakout rooms when scheduling	On	Optional
Remote support	Off	Optional
Closed captioning	Off	Optional
Save options	Off	Required
Language interpretation	Off	Optional
Far end camera control	Off	Required
Group HD video	Off	Optional
Virtual background	Off	Optional
Identify guest participants in the meeting/webinar	Off	Optional
Auto-answer group in chat	Off	Required
Only show default email when sending email invites	Off	Optional
Use HTML format email for Outlook plugin	Off	Optional
Allow users to select stereo audio in their client settings	On	Optional
Aloow users to select original sound in their client settings	On	Optional
Waiting room	On	Required
Choose which participants to place in the waiting room	All Participants	Required
Show a “Join from your browser” link	On	Optional
Allow live streaming meetings	Off	Optional
Meeting > Email Notification
When a cloud recording is available	Off	Required
When attendees join meeting before host	Off	Required
When a meeting is cancelled	Off	Required
When an alternantive host is set or removed from a meeting	Off	Required
When someone scheduled a meeting for a host	Off	Required
When the cloud recording is going to be permanently deleted from trash	Off	Required
Meeting > Other
Blur snapshot on IOS task switcher	On	Required
Local recording	Off	Required
Cloud recording	Off	Required
Automatic recording	Off	Required
IP Address Access Control	Off	Required
Only authenticated users can view cloud records	Off	Required
Required password to access shared cloud recordings	Off	Required
Require password to access shared cloud recordings	Off	Required
Auto deleted cloud recordings after days	Off	Required
The host can delete cloud recordings	Off	Required
Recording disclaimer	Off	Required
Multiple audio notifications of recorded meeting	Off	Required
Telephone
Show international numbers link on the invitation email	Off	Optional
Toll Call	Off	Optional
Toll-free and Fee-based Toll Call	Off	Optional
Call Out	Off	Optional
Choose where most of the participatns call into or call from the meeting	Off	Optional
Personal Aduio Conference (PAC)	Off	Optional
3rd Party Audio	Off	Optional
Mask phone number in the participants list	On	Required
Global Dial-in countries/regions	Off	Optional

Concluding Thoughts

Zoom and others like it have revolutionized the remote workforce as we know it. It effectively allows remote employees across a distributed workforce to be able to effectively communicate and do so in a way that is secure and respects privacy when configured correctly.

The Zoom Security and Privacy Settings for Remote Workers mentioned detailed above are recommendations for securing your Zoom account. However, each business will need to evaluate their own business needs and see which particular settings make sense for your business.

Are you having difficulty with remote zoom connections? Take a look at my post here for automatic Zoom meeting joins for remote workers:

• Zoom Automatic Join Meeting How To