Beware Zoom Video Conferencing....



Recently, the FBI issued a warning surrounding the now wildly popular video conferencing platform. In December of last year, this company reported just 10 million daily users. In March of this year, that number is up to 200 million due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While this technology of video conferencing is extremely important in a time where individuals have been forced to suddenly work from home, privacy and security should still be of concern.

A phenomenon called "Zoombombing" has become an issue due to the lack of proper security measures within the application. This phenomena occurs when an outsider hijacks any public meeting. This intruder can then take over the screens of those within the conference and display whatever they want. Often this comes in the form of hardcore pornography, racial slurs or Nazi symbols. One such case involved a doctoral student who was attempting to defend their dissertation online. An unknown source hijacked this meeting and began drawing male genetalia and racial slurs on the screen. Everyone, including the student, was stunned - they had lost all control of the meeting. Eventually, they were able to start a new meeting and the student finished his presentation and earned his title. But he said that the intrusion had ruined any celebratory emotions that he had hoped to feel once he had succeeded in his defense.

A previous employee of the National Security Agency (NSA), Patrick Wardle, was quoted in an article saying, "Things you just would like to have in a chat and video application — strong encryption, strong privacy controls, strong security — just seem to be completely missing." He acknowledges that the application may be very easy to use, but expresses his caution due to lax security measures. The CEO of Zoom, Eric Yuan, claims that they are freezing all work on new features in the application to focus on fixing the existing problems. He says, "We recognize that we have fallen short of the community's – and our own – privacy and security expectations. For that, I am deeply sorry, and I want to share what we are doing about it."

The company is also facing a class act lawsuit due to the fact that it was sharing users data with Facebook, even if that user didn't have a Facebook account. Zoom claims that this was a mistake, but the investigation surrounding the issue is still underway.

As we continue along in this uncertain time, many companies feel desperate to continue their work and keep their employees. It is unfortunate that this platform, which offered companies a way to stay connected, has many security gaps. I do hope that this is something that can be solved in an expedited manner, especially now that there has been some attention drawn to it. While Zoom is working out the bugs, there are some ways that you can defend your meetings. Every Zoom meeting is public by default, but you can change these settings. Additionally, Zoom posted guidelines on how to keep those uninvited guests out of your meetings as they work on the problem.

Hope this helps!

-Vicky

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