Outsider accesses Zoom class, TUPD updates safety requirements

By: Meghan Hudson, Editor-in-Chief

The Towson University Police Department received a report of an outside individual accessing a class on Zoom this week.

On Wed. evening TUPD issued a campus-wide email to inform the campus community of this occurrence, and introduced a Sept. security change for courses conducted on Zoom.

To avoid unwanted attendees in class sessions, limit access to the TU community by using these recommended security measures,” emailed Joseph Herring, Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety. “This provides an additional layer of security for our academic programming.”

Starting at the end of this month, Zoom announced it will be requiring its paid accounts to abide by new security measures.

“Starting September 27, Zoom will require that all meetings have a Passcode or a Waiting Room enabled for all paid accounts,” Zoom posted. “You’re in control of your meeting security selections, and we have designed the options with security and ease of use in mind.”

Towson University has since announced that starting on Sept. 25th, TU students and instructors must log in on Zoom through “Single Sign On.”

Go to https://zoom.towson.edu, click “Sign In,” said Herring. “Logging in this way bypasses the Waiting Room. Sharing this with students will allow them to directly enter the class session.”

By Sept. 27th, instructors will be required to have set up both a passcode and waiting room for each course session, as this will keep all non-TU affiliates in the waiting room until they are admitted manually by the instructor.

“Towson University holds an enterprise account for Zoom,” TU posted online. “Using TU’s account allows us to provide the features of the Zoom video service while helping to protect you, and our data when teaching and conducting business. ”

To access their TU Zoom accounts, students may visit www.towson.edu/zoom.

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