ZoomBombing

What is ZoomBombing?

Let's start with Who is a ZoomBomber? A ZoomBomber is an uninvited participant who bursts into a private Zoom meeting and disrupts the meeting by blasting loud sounds or screen sharing inappropriate material. Media reports suggest the uninvited material is often racist or pornographic. Internet trolls take advantage of unsecured meetings. Using URLs that are public--listed on websites or sent out via mass emails--ZoomBombers join meetings and wreak havoc.

With a little practice, however, you can safely keep ZoomBombers away from your classes. The best strategies rely on setting your meetings up correctly, sharing your URLs wisely, and knowing the controls available to you to manage participants so you can evict any unwanted "guests" from your Zoom sessions. Below are a few strategies to use diligently to protect you and your students from ZoomBombers.

Adjust Your Default Meeting Settings

Setting up your meeting with security and privacy in mind helps prevent unwanted guests. Go an extra step and enable passcodes for your meetings. You can then embed that code in your meeting link to make it easier for your students to join those meetings.

When you schedule through CityZoom within Canvas, students join the meeting through your Canvas course. Entering your course requires authentication by a student, so this will better protect information related to your Zoom meeting.

Know Your Toolbar

As the host of a Zoom meeting, you have many tools right at your fingertips during a meeting. There are four tools that can be very effective at stopping a ZoomBomber or disruptive student.

Mute All Participants

When a disruption occurs, it might be difficult, at first, to determine who is causing the problem. If you have the participants pane open, you can quickly "Mute All" and eliminate all background noise. This will buy you a few seconds to see who is making the racket. After muting, watch for any participant who quickly unmutes. Mute All button at the bottom of the Participants window.

Stop a Participant from Screen-Sharing

As the host, you have the ability to stop others from sharing their screen. Learn where this control is (it is usually at the top of your screen when someone else is sharing), and learn how to remove the right to share quickly and efficiently from others. Practice this with your peers. Stop Participant's Sharing option under View Options.

Remove Bad Actors

If someone is purposely disrupting your Zoom meeting, as host you can remove them from the meeting. Although we want to be careful about removing students (especially if the disruption is unintended), it is your right to remove uninvited "guests" from your meeting. Practice using the Participants pane in Zoom to know who is in the room, identify unknown participants, and remove them when necessary. Remove option available under More button in the Participants window.

Use Security Menu Features

Security Menu options to use during a Zoom meeting.

Make sure the waiting room is enabled — so you can choose who you want to let in. With the waiting room enabled, you will also have the option to move a participant who is already in the meeting back into the waiting room.
Suspend Participant Activities:
This will better protect all of the real students in the class by immediately suspending all participant activities in one click:
- Mute all video and audio
- Stop any screen sharing
- End all breakout rooms
- Pause recording
After choosing this option, the Participants window will automatically open, allowing quick access to Remove the disruptive participant or Put in Waiting Room (if enabled).