With social distancing and quarantine initiatives implemented all over the world, people quickly began looking for effective ways to communicate with one another. Zoom quickly rose in popularity due to its reported ease of use and attractive pricing — and people quickly realized that Zoom’s developers weren’t adequately prepared for the degree of scrutiny it would receive.

With so much use, Zoom’s flaws became noticeable quickly. The company handled the massive increase in workload with ease and responded quickly to security researchers’ breakthroughs. However, just as with any other service, code upgrades will not address every complaint, but some issues are well important to remember.

Yes, zoom is safe and secure, you just need to follow some Zoom security tips to make your meetings safe.

Keep your account safe.

Zoom account is yet another account, and when you set up yours, you should follow the fundamentals of account security. Use a strong and unique password, and prevent your account with two-factor authentication, which makes your account more difficult to hack and fully protected, even if your account information leaks (which hasn’t happened yet).

There’s one more Zoom-specific catch: when you register, you’ll receive a Personal Meeting ID in addition to your login and password. Try not to make it public. And, because Zoom security allows you to create public meetings using your Personal Meeting ID, it’s relatively simple to leak that ID. If you do, anyone who knows your PMI can attend any meeting you host, so use caution when disclosing this information.

To sign up for Zoom, use your work email address.

An unusual glitch in Zoom (which is fixed now) induces the service to treat e-mails from the same domain — unless it’s a really popular domain like @gmail.com or @yahoo.com — as belonging to almost the same business, and it shares their contact information with each member of a minority group. That happened, for example, to users who authorized Zoom security accounts with e-mail addresses ending in @yandex.kz, a public e-mail service in Kazakhstan, and it could happen again with e-mail addresses from smaller public e-mail providers.

So, to sign up for Zoom, use your work e-mail address. Sharing your work contact information with your actual coworkers should not be a problem. If you don’t have a work email address, create a burner account with a well-known public database to keep your personal contact information private.

Enable Waiting Room

Waiting Room is a feature that gives you more control over the conference and facilitates Zoom security. It makes attendees wait in a “waiting room” until the host accepts each one. This allows you to control who enters your meeting, even if someone who’s not supposed to join somehow obtained the password. It also allows you to leave someone out of the meeting — and into the waiting room. It is recommended that you leave this box checked.

Don’t be tricked by fake Zoom apps.

The number of malicious files containing the names of famous video conference services (Webex, GoToMeeting, Zoom, and others) in their files nearly tripled in March compared to the numbers explored month by month of the previous year. That most probably means that malefactors are increasing their abuse as a result of the popularity of Zoom security and other similar apps, attempting to disguise malware as videoconference clients.

Don’t be taken in by it! Zoom can be downloaded safely from Zoom’s official website — zoom.us — for Mac and PC, and for mobile devices, go to the App Store or Google Play.

Make certain that everyone’s home internet is reliable.

Professional internet services are typically more secure than private providers, but with everyone work - at - home, connection security is more important than ever. People can contact their internet service providers for more information on securing their internet service, and they can also take extra precautions to ensure that nothing fraudulent compromises the system. You can also follow these cybersecurity practices for remote employees. 

People should treat their home internet access as they would their corporate or work connection during this period of work from home. Users can click on suspicious links or downloading insecure files exposes them to a security breach. It may even be worth investing in additional cybersecurity apps or programs.

Password-protect each meeting.

Setting a strong password for your meeting is still the best way to ensure that only the people you want to join can join. Zoom recently made password protection the default setting, which is a wise decision. However, don’t mix up the meeting password and your Zoom account password. Meeting passwords, like meeting links, should never be shared on social media or other public channels, or your efforts to preserve your call from trolls will be pointless.

Take note of the screen-sharing options.

Zoom, like any other videoconference app, supports screen-sharing (the ability for one participant to display their screen to the others). Here are a few settings to keep an eye on:

Whether to limit screen-sharing to the host or to make it available to everyone on the call. You know which option to select if you don’t need other people to show their screens;

Allowing multiple participants to share screens at the same time. If you can’t immediately see why your meetings would benefit from this feature, you’ll probably never need it; just take that into consideration in case you need to enable it.

Excellent Zoom Alternatives

Yes, there are far too many to mention here. Here are a few more that you use on a regular basis.

Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams is a smart business communication platform that is improving. It never had some of Zoom’s popular features, such as Zoom Rooms and Breakout Rooms, but either is gradually being introduced.

Google Meet: As a more strong video conferencing solution, Google Meet has quickly gained traction as a viable alternative to Zoom. However, it lacks the functionality of a breakout room.

Others, such as Blue Jeans, are available for video conferencing, streaming live, and attached rooms. Join Me is recommended for screen sharing and team collaboration.

Conclusion

Isolation from others can be tedious and lonely. Imagine all of this occurring before broadband, video - conferencing, and the ability for many people to work remotely. We’re glad apps like Zoom exists, and you now know how to use them with Zoom security tips.