Billionaire Eric Yuan of Zoom addresses a conference.

Security Flaws, Missteps Put Online Video Service on Spot

As Zoom attracts more users than ever in the time of COVID-19, the online video conferencing service also faces more security scrutinyfrom users—the FBI and even shareholders. A story on cnet.com by Ray Hodge explains:

“As the coronavirus pandemic forced millions of people to stay home over the past month, Zoom suddenly became the video meeting service of choice: Daily meeting participants on the platform surged from 10 million in December to 200 million in March. That is quite a jump in users and revenue! But with that jump came a bunch of security problems.

As the service, ahem, zoomed in popularity, its privacy flaws came into sharp view.

From built-in attention-tracking features to recent upticks in “Zoombombing” (in which uninvited attendees break into and disrupt meetings with hate-filled or pornographic content), Zoom’s security practices have been drawing more attention — along with at least three lawsuits against the company.

If you aren’t familiar with Zoom’s security issues, you can work your way through the most recent information.

Zoom has been called out for these episodes by New York’s attorney and by vice.com for sharing information with Facebook, according to a story on npr.org.

U.S. Senate Avoids Zoom

The U.S. Senate told members to avoid using Zoom for remote work during the coronavirus lockdown due to security issues surrounding the videoconferencing app, the Financial Times reported Thursday. While it reportedly isn’t an official ban, like Google issued for its employees, senators were asked to use an alternative platform.

Even Zoom’s stockholders are peeved.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court, Zoom shareholder Michael Drieu accused the company of having “inadequate data privacy and security measures” and falsely asserting that the service was end-to-end encrypted. Drieu also said that media reports and public admissions by the company on security problems have caused Zoom’s stock price to plunge.

Eric Yuan, the largest investor,  made about $4 billion in the past 3 months from his nine-year investment. The 49-year-old billionaire’s net worth jumped 112% to $7.57 billion in the past three months, as the rest of the world braces for an economic crisis caused by the novel coronavirus.

Zoom responded to criticism by giving hosts access to a “Security” control toolbar icon and changed settings to require those who join meetings to wait for entry unless the host restores original settings to allow automatic entry. The company also eliminated the meeting ID from the screen that allowed hackers access.

Before you Zoom, check out the rest of the article and read these suggestions from the Daily Telegraph on how to set up Zoom safely.

read more at cnet.com