🔐 Best Practices for Securing Your Zoom Meeting

🎯 Our Commitment to Secure Online Collaboration

At The Catholic University of America, we take digital learning and meeting security seriously. Whether you’re hosting a lecture, department meeting, or virtual advising session, it’s essential to understand and implement Zoom’s security tools to protect your participants and your content.


🛡️ Core Security Features to Enable Before Your Meeting

Before hosting any meeting—especially those involving sensitive topics or external guests—we recommend reviewing the following security measures:

Use a Waiting Room
Prevents attendees from joining until you admit them.
🔗 How to enable the Waiting Room

Require Authentication
Limit access to users signed in with a Zoom account or with @cua.edu emails.
🔗 Zoom: Authentication Settings

Set a Passcode
Add a layer of protection by requiring a meeting password.
🔗 Using Zoom Passcodes

Disable “Join Before Host”
This prevents participants from accessing the meeting without the host present.
🔗 Meeting Settings Overview

Lock the Meeting After It Starts
Stop additional participants from joining after your class or session begins.
🔗 Locking a Meeting


🔧 Managing Security During Your Meeting

Zoom provides a Security icon in the meeting toolbar that gives you quick access to critical in-meeting controls. We strongly encourage all hosts to become familiar with these.

🔑 Use the Security Button in your toolbar to:

  • Lock the meeting

  • Enable or disable screen sharing

  • Mute participants

  • Remove participants

  • Turn off participant renaming

  • Suspend participant activities

📘 Learn more: Zoom In-Meeting Security Options


🧠 Know Before You Host: Practice First

If you’re unfamiliar with Zoom’s security tools, we recommend hosting a test session or joining a training session to explore:

  • Where key controls are located

  • What happens when certain restrictions are applied

  • How to respond quickly to disruptions

You can also visit our dedicated Zoom Security at CatholicU page for local guidelines and documentation.