Zoom tries to make Zoombombing a thing of the past with tighter meeting controls

Zoom has opted to combat so-called Zoombombers by tightening up the process of joining a meeting. As of the weekend just gone, meeting passwords and waiting rooms are on by default.

Zoom has been the focus of heavy criticism over the past week or so, after the emergence of a series of significant issues. One of these has come to be known as Zoombombing.

Related: Is Zoom safe?

Every Zoom call has an ID number assigned to it in order to make it easy for those invited to it to join, but there have been numerous reports of trolls successfully gatecrashing chats in order to abuse participants and display graphic content to the group − simply by feeding random meeting ID number combinations into the system.

In fact, some cases of Zoombombing have been so unpleasant that the act − not just on Zoom, but on video chat services in general − has become a federal offence in the US, which is punishable by a fine or imprisonment.

Zoom has now made some changes to its settings, in an attempt to stamp Zoombombing out. The changes, which came into force on April 4, make the process of joining a Zoom meeting − whether instant or scheduled − a little less seamless, but hopefully a lot more secure.

To join a meeting, you’ll first need the meeting ID, or the direct invitation and link. Then you’ll have to enter a password. Once you’ve taken both of these steps, you’ll be placed in a virtual waiting room, and it’ll be up to the host of the meeting to let you in or leave you out. The full details are here.

Related: How to delete a Zoom account

In an earlier blog post published on April 1, Zoom apologised to users and said that over the next 90 days, all of its engineering resources will shift their focus to the service’s “biggest trust, safety, and privacy issues”.