San Francisco: Video-conferencing platform ‘Zoom’ is rolling out a number of measures to stem criticism over how it has handled security. The ‘Zoom’ platform has become very popular as users flock to the application during the coronavirus pandemic.
New measures implemented
‘Zoom’ chief executive Eric Yuan said Thursday that the company is implementing several measures for the benefit of its users. It has put into place options to prevent data hacking and ‘Zoombombing’. By week’s end, paid account holders of ‘Zoom’ will be able to select which regions their data is routed through during their sessions. This is a move apparently aimed at concerns over information passing through China where it might be subject to snooping.
“As a reminder, meeting servers in China have always been geofenced. The goal has been to ensure data of users outside of China is protected,” Zoom said in an online post.
The Silicon Valley startup also said that it is working with cyber-security firm Luta Security to overhaul processes. Its ‘bug bounty’ programme that pays rewards to researchers who find security flaws in its operations is also on.
Steps to check hackers
Zoom also addressed a recent report that users’ log-in information was being sold by criminals on the ‘dark web’. The credentials were likely stolen elsewhere on the internet, or by malicious code slipped into people’s computers. This has been said by ‘Zoom’ advisor Alex Stamos, former chief of security at ‘Facebook’.
It is not uncommon for hackers to take passwords and account names pilfered in data breaches. They then check whether people use them for other online services.
Zoom said it is building systems to ‘detect whether people are trying out username and password pairings and block them from trying again’. Improvements to Zoom security also include a toolbar to easily access features such as locking chats from strangers. The app platform is also making meeting password requirements a default setting.
“To successfully scale a video-heavy platform to such a size with no appreciable downtime and in the space of weeks is literally unprecedented in the history of the internet,” Stamos said in a post. “The related security challenges are fascinating,” he added.
Restrictions on use of Zoom
India this week banned the use of ‘Zoom’ for government remote meetings, saying it ‘is not a safe platform’” The New York school system has also banned the video-conferencing platform based on security concerns.
According to Yuan, the number of people taking part in Zoom meetings daily eclipsed 200 million in March. At the end of last year the figure stood at 10 million.
AFP
