Securing Zoom Meetings: Best Practices

NOTICE: There has been a nationwide increase in security breaches in Zoom Meetings. Uninvited users are maliciously joining and disrupting Zoom Meetings after gaining access to the meeting URL or Meeting ID. MSU has not been immune to this. To protect your meetings, the following changes have been implemented by Zoom to protect users from malicious intruders:

The “Join before host” setting has been turned OFF and locked - meaning this cannot be changed. Users are unable to join your meeting until you, the host, are in the meeting.
Waiting rooms have been automatically enabled for every meeting. Hosts will need to let in all participants. For more on waiting rooms see Using Zoom's Waiting Room Feature.
Only the host can share their screen. Hosts can enable screensharing for others by making them a co-host. Hosts can then reclaim the screen after the presentation. For more on this see Managing Participants in a Zoom Meeting.
Participants are automatically muted upon entry. Participants will need to unmute themselves manually. You, as the host, can also unmute and mute participants. For more information, see Managing Participants in a Zoom Meeting.
Participants: log in to Murray State's SSO at murraystate.zoom.us so that you will be authenticated and admitted into the Zoom meeting securely.

Hosts: request that MSU participants log in at murraystate.zoom.us prior to joining your meeting. Do not admit any user from the waiting room that you do not recognize.

Recommendations to secure Zoom meetings from uninvited guests

NOTE: The Zoom settings referenced in this article can be accessed by going to https://murraystate.zoom.us/ and logging in with your myGate credentials. Once you are successfully logged in, click on "Settings” in the left-side menu.

Each Murray State user with a Zoom account is provided a 10-digit Personal Meeting ID and URL that links to a standing, permanent personal meeting. Do NOT use your Personal Meeting ID for public meetings or teaching purposes.Reserve this for personal meetings.
Only share your Personal Meeting ID or URL with individuals you trust.
When setting up a Zoom meeting for an academic course or meeting, allow Zoom to generate a unique ID for each meeting to limit access (this happens automatically when scheduling a Zoom meeting).
Never post your Personal Meeting ID or URL in a place that is accessible to the public (i.e. a website or social media account).
Periodically change your Personal Meeting ID (at least once a year) by visiting your Profile menu, and clicking “edit” to the right of your 10-digit Personal Meeting ID (Setting pictured below)

Additional Options for Authentication Prior to Joining a Meeting

The option below can be enabled, and will not allow users to join your meeting at all without first authenticating via Murray State or zoom.us. This is an optional additional security enhancement

How to Keep Uninvited Guests Out of Your Zoom Event

Managing Participants in a Zoom Meeting

Zoom SSO and Profile Settings