Zoom adds new security and privacy measures to prevent Zoom bombing

Zoom will soon Enable passwords and waiting rooms by default for all meetings to help prevent “Zoombombing”, or the recent trend of people disrupting Zoom meetings unsolicited and sharing shocking or even pornographic content. The new default settings will add real friction to the process of joining a meeting – a process that Zoom had previously made as frictionless as possible to drive growth. The changes will take effect on April 5.

Zoom passwords were already enabled by default for new meetings, instant meetings, and meetings that you attended with a meeting ID. New from April 5 is that they will also be enabled for previously scheduled Zoom meetings. And once you join a meeting, wait for the host to let you in from the new virtual waiting room. The host of the meeting can choose to let people in individually from the waiting room or all at once.

You can see the new changes in this video from Zoom:

Zoom usage skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic as people turned to the free video conference service to keep in touch with friends, family, colleagues, and even their yoga teachers. But with that increased use, the platform has also become a target for hacks, jokes and harassment, often via Zoombombing. The problem has become so serious that federal prosecutors are now warning that there may be serious legal implications for Zoombombing perpetrators.

The service’s new default security may also address other security vulnerabilities with the platform. Yesterday, it was revealed that some security researchers had developed an automated tool capable of identifying 100 non-password protected Zoom meeting IDs in an hour and scrape information about those meetings – perhaps Zoom’s new default password policy may prevent similar scan tools from finding meeting IDs and private information in the future.

Yesterday, Zoom announced a 90-day stop to release new features so it can focus on solving privacy and security issues with the platform.