Additional Zoom Security Measures Coming July 30

In an effort to increase security and privacy for the Ohio State community, all CarmenZoom meetings and webinars will require a passcode beginning July 30.

If you have been using the default settings in CarmenZoom, meetings and webinars created since May 5 will already include passcodes embedded in the meeting link. The July 30 change will apply passcodes to previously scheduled meetings and to Personal Meeting ID links. In addition to adding passcodes to all meetings, we will prevent users from turning off the passcode going forward.

Not sure if your scheduled meetings include passcodes?

Log in at carmenzoom.osu.edu and navigate to the Meetings tab. Any upcoming meetings without a passcode or waiting room will show a red exclamation point icon; these meetings will need a passcode added. If you opted to use a waiting room for any future meetings, you will need to check to see if those meetings also include passcodes. Meeting links with passcodes will include a “?pwd=” and a long string of letters and numbers at the end. You should also check for this password string in meeting URLs you have pasted in other tools, such as Carmen, Teams or Outlook.

If you have any scheduled webinars, navigate to the Webinars tab to check the settings for those events and ensure passcodes are in place.

If all your existing scheduled meetings and webinars include passcodes, you are all set and don’t need to make any updates! Congrats!

However, if you identified meetings or webinars that need to have a passcode added, your next step is deciding when and how to let people know the new URL for your meeting or the added passcode. Possible options include:

• Create new meetings: For some users, the easiest option may be to delete existing meetings without passcodes and then create fresh, new meetings using the current default settings.
• Edit existing meetings: You can edit existing meetings, including your Personal Meeting ID, within the CarmenZoom portal and check the box to add a meeting passcode. When you save the meeting, you will see the longer URL with the embedded password. You can then copy the new meeting link and passcode into your existing meeting invitations or other shared locations (Carmen, Teams, Outlook).
• Wait until we apply the new settings: On July 30, all existing meetings and webinars without passcodes will have one assigned to them. At that point you can go to carmenzoom.osu.edu to find the URL and passcode assigned to each of your existing meetings and send the new details to your attendees.

If you do not take action before July 30 to update your existing meetings and webinars, attendees will be prompted to enter a passcode that is unknown to them before they can join. Updating your Zoom meetings ahead of time will create a much smoother experience for your meeting participants.

If you are looking for additional security for your meetings or webinars, you can adjust the optional settings by adding a waiting room or only allowing authenticated users to join. You can also modify the default settings to disable the embedded password. This way, you can send your meeting participants a separate password for them to type in, making your meetings even more secure. 

So why are we doing this change on July 30?

Zoom is planning to enforce increased security on all accounts later this year, but a group of IT staff, security experts, educators and executive assistants decided to make this change earlier for Ohio State. The date and security options chosen provide our faculty, staff and students with the most flexibility and time to adapt to the change. Specifically, making this change ahead of the vendor will allow instructors to schedule recurring class meetings with passcodes already in place, rather than facing a disruption midway through autumn semester.