Last week while hosting one of our "A Better Normal" Discussion Series Zoom meetings featuring recovery author Tian Dayton, we got a dreaded spammer. We were mid-discussion when suddenly there was a screenshare take-over by a meeting spammer with hateful images and words. My ability to keep a safe space for community discussion on sensitive topics and my need to feel in control was disrupted and I felt triggered! It was a traumatic moment, albeit a "little t" trauma for me, triggering "big T" childhood traumas in which life felt out of control.
Luckily, Tian helped me see my triggers and also helped me find compassion for the spammers. "How can people be so hateful, that's what I don't understand?" I asked the group, once we got back into the discussion after closing it down.
"These are people who hate themselves and they want others to suffer as much as they are suffering," Tian said. Ahh. Of course. How easy it is to get angry about the suffering of others when we feel triggered and provoked.
I read a Forbes blog about Zoom safety and realized that spammers are just walking through Internet doors left wide open. Some simple practices have been keeping our meetings safe this week.
Here's what we're doing to to prevent Zoom spam attacks:
1. Require pre-registration
Check the box when you create the meeting.
2. Don't use your personal Meeting ID
Have a meeting-specific ID. This keeps your personal Zoom ID private. This is enabled by default so no action is needed.
3. Require a password
This gets emailed automatically when folks register.
4. Meeting options: don't let people join before the host, mute participants upon entry, keep people in the waiting room before the meeting starts, and require authentication.
So far registration has kept spammers out so you may not need to closely monitor the waiting room ā but this way you can approve each person who wants to join.
Authenticated users have to have a Zoom account, even if it's a free Zoom account. This is most likely the most important box to check.
5. Creating a new meeting and thus, a new meeting ID each week
Previously we were just using one meeting ID for the whole series. Now we change the ID, requiring new registration each week. More work but ultimately, more safe.
Troubleshooting
Once your event is scheduled, scroll down to the bottom and update your Email Settings to include the best point of contact. A couple of people each time DO have trouble joining these calls with the more difficult entry, but the majority are able to follow the steps to join no problem.
I make sure to check my emails after the event is underway to help people who want to join, join. What I do as a last resort if they just can't seem to get in, is message them:
- the meeting ID
- the password
This works every time!
Do you have any other questions about setting up a secure Zoom meeting? Please ask away! I'm happy to help. Do you have other pro-tips I need to know? Please share them! I'm not an expert ā I'm just one semi-traumatized meeting maker.
So far, no spammers since we put these steps in place.
Note: Be sure to keep your Zoom software as up-to-date as possible. New fixes are being released each day by Zoom.
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