When Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the UK, sent out a tweet that included his computer screen showing his first cabinet meeting on Zoom, little did he know that he was helping hackers find their way into his meeting. His monitor clearly showed the meeting ID, and sharing it with the whole world on social media was like giving hackers a key to their conference room.
Unfortunately for Zoom, that’s not the only story about their web video conferencing platform that’s been in the news recently. Massachusetts online school sessions have been crashed by harassing hackers. Zoom has covertly been sending data to Facebook. It turns out that the platform didn’t really have the level of encryption that they purported to have. And thousands of screenshots containing meeting IDs have been circulating in hacker networks.
It appears that Zoom is trying to make amends. Last week they sent out an email to account holders with a long list of updates that they’re making to the platform. They’re certainly hustling to close privacy and security holes, but this activity has only happened after organizations such as Google, Elon Musk’s Space X, the US Department of Defense, and the German government – to name a few - have banned its use. There are also several lawsuits pertaining to security breaches in progress.
Zoom has stated that they are delaying feature updates in order to focus on security. They’re not the only tech company to do this. Microsoft has paused new releases of Edge, and Google is pausing new releases of Chrome in order to focus on security and stability.
All software has vulnerabilities. Software developers know this, and hackers know this too. Cyber criminals are constantly looking for these potential holes, and developers are trying to close them. That’s why it’s so important to use supported software so that you get the latest version that has patched up the hole. Too bad Zoom didn’t patch before all this happened and they gained notoriety for bringing a new verb into our vocabulary – Zoombomb.
With the exodus of workers from employer to work-from-home locations, and families and friends trying to stay in touch during shelter-at-home orders, Zoom has experienced a huge boom in utilization going from about 10 million to 200 million users in the matter of a few weeks.
The security issues, however, have tarnished their reputation and many people are wondering if it’s safe to use Zoom.
If you use Zoom for business, take time to learn about all of the security features that are available. A few of these features include:
If you have lingering questions about using Zoom, you should contact your IT department to and get their take on the platform and your particular business needs for data security.
Whether or not you’ve been using Zoom, it might be a good idea to take a step back and ask yourself if you’re using the video platform that best meets your needs. Here are a few questions that you should include in your evaluation:
If you need to comply with regulations for privacy and confidentiality, then you no doubt need a higher level of security than you do for a happy hour with your cousins.
Video conferencing combined with other communication tools like messaging and file sharing can improve the way your team collaborates.
You may underutilize what you’re paying for if your people don’t have an understanding of all that the platform can do. Training should include lessons on security settings that the user has in their control.
The platform you’re considering may have an app directory that will quickly show you if you can combine it with tools you already use. Discovering integrations might give you ideas on how you can improve collaboration with video conferencing.
A free plan is probably not going to give you the features that you need for business. Prices are usually based on how many users you have. Right now many video conferencing platforms are offering discounts in addition to free trials.
Here at VC3, we’re pointing most of our clients to Microsoft Teams, the video conferencing platform that is part of the Microsoft 365 family. Some of the reasons why we like Teams include:
A lot of companies are discovering that they need more IT help than they’re getting right now. We support Southern California organizations by supplementing their internal IT team, or acting as their whole IT department. Schedule a FREE IT assessment if you’re ready for better results from IT.