Zoom to Focus on Security

Zoom has decided to stop all their work on adding new features to the program and focus all their efforts on making the platform more secure and safe. This decision comes after a myriad of incidents after the platform for video conference went from mostly just corporations to now being used by people just wanting to meet up for little “get togethers”. This has caused the platform’s user base to become much more broad which allows user to find errors in the platform. One of these is that people have found a way to get in to random zoom meetings and will harass the members with explicit content and verbal harassment. Zoom originally explained that this problem was because if everyone is in the same company it was easy for someone who knew someone in the company to join at random. This explanation was later taken back after the problem continued to grow as the lockdown continued. Zoom has stated that they will look at reviews over the next 90 days to help find everything that needs to be fixed on the platform.

I think that it is great that Zoom is now going to prioritize the security of their program rather than just leaving it as is just because it is the best option for people to use. This shows that they really care about their user base especially in these unprecedented times. Zoom also publicly stated that certain meeting types, like book readings or music livestreams, which have hundreds of users joining would be better suited on other platforms such as YouTube live-streaming. I think this is great because it once again shows that they are focused on their users getting the best experience rather than just trying to make money. Both of these decisions display what I believe to be good business practice and sets certain companies apart from each other.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/02/zoom-says-engineers-will-focus-on-security-and-safety-issues

3 thoughts on “Zoom to Focus on Security

  1. I think this is a great post considering how prevalent zoom has become. Everyone uses it now, schools, businesses, friends, family, and everyone in between. During these strange times we should be thankful that a platform like this is available. But, that does not mean it is perfect. Many friends and family of mine have expressed issues about the security of zoom meetings and how easy they are for outsiders to crash and interrupt them. I have personally had this happen to me during my lectures. I think Zoom is a great platform overall, but I think there are some things they could do better. Here are my ideas as to how zoom can overcome these security issues and make a lot of people happier with their service. First, I think they should more heavily advertise their “webinar” feature. This feature is only used by one of my professors, and it is an easy loophole around people potentially crashing meetings. It allows only the host to share their video and audio. Attendees can still ask questions and talk in the chat, but the meeting cannot be interrupted. I think if Zoom makes this particular aspect of their platform more well known, these complaints will be less frequent. The other thing I think Zoom could implement is a password feature that is unique to each user like quiz codes on canvas, you only get a unique password if it is sent to you. This could be done through emails or via canvas for students, and this could mitigate interruptions. I really like Zoom overall so far, but I think they could remedy their issues by doing things like this.

  2. This is a very timely and relevant post considering the ever increasing user base of the Zoom platform in the wake of our current circumstances. It is encouraging to see that the company is looking to increase its security measures. Recently I have received a lot of videos from friends of their online classes who are now frequently getting “lecture bombed”. These videos mostly involve a random person entering a zoom meeting, yelling profanities at the professor and drawing on the screen for all of the students to see. It is certainly frustrating to watch people just trying to do their job, only to be rudely and purposelessly interrupted. Not only is the situation frustrating for the professors, but also frustrating for the students as “lecture bombers” like these ruin their focus.From what I’ve seen, these incidents almost always lead to early termination of classes. With early dismissal and lower quality of classes, many students are becoming fed up with Zoom University, as they are getting a much lower quality education at the same price of tuition. Hopefully the people at Zoom will come up with a password, or specific login credential system to enter Zoom meetings to ensure that the people attending the lectures are permitted to be there by their organization, be it a business or university.

  3. Due to the crisis, many students are using social network services in order to communicate with professors and friends. I have always felt that zoon was very efficient and secure. However, one article talking about zoom’s security problems shocked me off called, zoombombing. However, zoom cooperation has decided to stop investigating their product thinking about how to develop more by adding more functions and focus more on security. I think this is a great step for zoom since so many cooperations are focusing on how to make more profits and develop their apps not caring about basics. I believe with the cooperation’s support, it would make the environment safer for the students.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/marleycoyne/2020/04/03/zooms-big-security-problems-summarized/#6aba571d4641

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