Zoom announces new security features to combat meeting disruptions

Zoom Video Communications has released two new security features to remove and report disruptive meeting participants. Zoom has also shared information about an internal tool to help prevent meeting disruptions before they happen. This is in line with the updates that came up last month.

Last month, Zoom deployed an At-Risk Meeting Notifier. This notifier scans public social media posts and other websites for publicly shared Zoom Meeting links. When the tool detects a meeting that looks to be at high risk of disruption; it automatically alerts the account owner by email and provides advice on what to do.

Then, the user can delete the vulnerable meeting and create a new meeting. They can, thus, enable security settings, or use another Zoom solution, like Zoom Video Webinars or OnZoom. If the user does get an email, it’s critical to take action or risk meeting disruption.

What are the New security enhancements?

Suspend Participant Activities

Under the Security icon, hosts and co-hosts now have the option to temporarily pause their meeting and remove a disruptive participant. By clicking “Suspend Participant Activities,” all video, audio, in-meeting chat, annotation, screen sharing, and recording during that time will stop, and Breakout Rooms will end.

The hosts or co-host will be asked if they would like to report a user from their meeting, share any details, and optionally include a screenshot. Once they click “Submit,” the reported user will be removed from their meeting, and Zoom’s Trust & Safety team will be notified. Hosts and co-hosts may resume their meeting by individually re-enabling the features they’d like to use. It will also send them an email after the meeting to gather more information.

Zoom provides the Suspend Participant Activities as default for all free and paid Zoom users.

Report by Participants

Hosts and co-hosts can already report users from the Security icon, but now meeting participants can also report a disruptive user directly from the Zoom client by clicking the top-left Security badge. Account owners and admins can enable reporting capabilities for non-hosts in their web settings.

Both of these new features are available on the desktop clients for Mac, PC, and Linux. They are also available on mobile apps, with support for the web client and VDI to come later this year.