In another effort to increase security of its virtual meetings, Zoom has announced that all new and previously scheduled meetings without a passcode will be required to have a passcode or the meeting will need to have the “waiting room” feature enabled. This change is scheduled to take effect Sept. 27 for both free and paid accounts.
On May 1, Information Technology required all new Zoom meetings to have a password (Zoom now refers to passwords as passcodes). The security changes ensure Zoom meetings are protected from uninvited participants or “Zoombombing.”
How this change impacts your meetings:
- For meetings, Zoom will be renaming “passwords” to “passcodes” to better align with its role of allowing attendees in a meeting.
- All previously scheduled meetings that do not have “passcodes” will have the “waiting room” feature applied.
- Meetings with passcodes will automatically have the passcode embedded into the “join meeting” URL link.
What actions do you need to take by Sept. 27?
For those meetings scheduled prior to May:
- If you wish to do nothing, by default Zoom will enable waiting rooms. (Please note that the waiting room feature requires the meeting host to be present and logged into their Zoom account at the start of the meeting to allow each participant into the meeting.)
- If you wish to not have waiting rooms enforced for your meetings, you will need to enable passcodes for your meetings or simply cancel and reschedule the existing meeting.
For those meetings scheduled after May 2020:
- There is nothing to do as the passcodes will be automatically embedded within the invitation and participants will be able to join in a routine fashion.
Additional information: