With world struggling to contain the coronavirus, the pandemic has disrupted the economy in a bad way. Zoom however, experiences the very exact opposite.
The U.S.-based communications technology company has massively grown its popularity, increasing its user base for a modest 10 million in 2019 to more than 200 million in April 2020. The coronavirus urged the government to restrict people, forcing many to work from home.
Among the reasons, this is why group video call providers like Zoom are getting the most attention.
And that attention comes from users, researchers, as well as hackers with malicious purposes in mind.
This led to a series of privacy and security concerns. The messes include hackers in exploiting zero-days vulnerabilities or other weaknesses in the software, and the leak of Zoom account credentials to the internet.
Acknowledging them, Zoom launched Zoom 5.0, which promises security improvements.
Among the biggest changes are support for stronger encryption, enabling passwords by default, and a place to house important security settings.
In a blog post, Zoom said that:
"By adding support for AES 256-bit GCM encryption, Zoom will provide increased protection for meeting data and resistance against tampering."
Besides that, Zoom 5.0 also implements data routing control, that allows account admins to choose which data center regions their account-hosted meetings and webinars should be used for real-time traffic at the account, group, or user level.
And for the user-interface, Zoom 5.0 makes use of the Security Icon, which groups together several of its control menus. With it, hosts can 'Report a User', disable the ability for participants to rename themselves and more.
Zoom 5.0 also made the Waiting Room turned on by default; Meeting passwords and Cloud recording passwords, also turned on by default; introduced secure account contact sharing; enhanced the dashboard, and more.
In the blog post, Zoom quoted some words from Eric S. Yuan, its CEO:
Oded Gal, CPO of Zoom, added that:
"From our network to our feature set to our user experience, everything is being put through rigorous scrutiny. On the back end, AES 256-bit GCM encryption will raise the bar for securing our users’ data in transit. On the front end, I’m most excited about the Security icon in the meeting menu bar. This takes our security features, existing and new, and puts them front and center for our meeting hosts."
"With millions of new users, this will make sure they have instant access to important security controls in their meetings.”
This upgrade is certainly a welcome move from Zoom, especially during the crisis where people rely on technology more than they ever before..
With Zoom 5.0, user data should be more difficult to access by third-parties, despite AES 256-bit GCM encryption standard is not necessarily the originally-claimed end-to-end encryption. But still, the upgrade allows users to have better control of the flow of their data.
And with Meeting passwords turned on by default, this should help minimize the likelihood of 'zoombombing'.
Lastly, the Security Icon which was first announced on April 8, should help users understand all of Zoom's security features, as they are all put in one place rather than being scattered around its menus.
Further reading: Programmer Creates Deepfake-Like Technology, And 'Zoombombs' As Elon Musk