Zoom on Wednesday committed to upgrading the encryption in its video-chatting app. And Zoom 5.0, which will be out within the week, will include additional security controls for meeting hosts, like the ability to report disruptive users.
Use of this platform rose enormously since people around the world went into self quarantine. And criticism of Zoom’s security and privacy controls also increased dramatically as Zoombombing became a thing.
Zoom gets better encryption
Oded Gal, Chief Product Officer, said in a statement “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.”
The company promises that this encryption upgrade will bring “increased protection of your meeting data in transit and resistance against tampering.”
This is an area where Zoom has faced vociferous criticism. German government workers are banned from using it because of a lack of end-to-end encryption, for example. Other countries, and the employees of many companies, aren‘t allowed to use this app either.
Improving security controls to end Zoombombing
The coronavirus crisis brought a new word: Zoombombing. This is the practice of dropping in uninvited to unsecured Zoom meetings. Not surprisingly, Zoom 5.0 will include changes aimed at preventing this, along with other security enhancements.
The app’s security features are now grouped together under a Security icon in the host’s interface. And hosts will be able to report a user to Zoom. Meeting passwords are on by default, and the Waiting Room is also on by default for most types of users.
“We will earn our customers’ trust and deliver them happiness with our unwavering focus on providing the most secure platform,” said Eric S. Yuan, CEO of Zoom.
This application is available for iPhone and iPad, as well as Mac.
