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If there was a company that went from heaven to hell in this COVID-19 pandemic, it was Zoom. This video conferencing platform exploded in popularity during the pandemic and was later involved in the controversial exchange of information with Facebook and, later, in serious security problems. Despite these risks, there are still many people, especially professionals, who use Zoom. However, the problem persists and even Google has prohibited its employees from installing the tool on their computers.
This attitude clearly shows that using this platform, for now, is a risk. This is because, as we have seen, the hackers who attacked the platform published several videoconference videos on the Internet.
Google banned Zoom from its employees' computers
Google has banned the popular Zoom video conferencing software from its employees' devices. Although Zoom is a competitor to Google's own video conferencing service, Meet, many employees used the platform created by Eric Yuan, a former Cisco Systems engineer.
Last week, the research giant sent an email to employees who had Zoom installed on their work computers, citing their "security vulnerabilities" and warned that video conferencing software on PCs would stop working this week. .
We have long had a policy of not allowing employees to use unapproved applications for jobs outside of our corporate network. Our security team recently informed employees using the Zoom Desktop Client that they will not be allowed to run it on company computers as they do not meet our security standards for the applications used by our employees. Employees who use Zoom to keep in touch with family and friends can continue to do so, but through a web browser or smartphone.
José Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, explained.
Zoom "was" of the best video conferencing platforms
Based in San José, California, Zoom went public in 2019, making its CEO Eric Yuan a millionaire. The company's video conferencing service was designed for companies to host webinars and meetings, but is now being used by people, closed around the world, for fitness sessions, educational classes, business meetings, and more. In March, 200 million people used Zoom daily, compared to just 10 million in December.
However, Zoom's growth was hampered by concerns about the service's security and privacy. Last month, an investigation showed that the Zoom app for iPhone and iPad sent data about users' devices to Facebook, including people who didn't have Facebook accounts.
The company stopped sending the data to Facebook the next day. However, more problems arose soon after. A former NSA hacker discovered a security problem with Zoom that could allow cybercriminals to control microphones and cameras on users' computers and even gain control of Apple's iMacs.
Zoom is being sued for hiding privacy flaws
Intercept showed that Zoom's calls were not encrypted in the way the company claimed. Last week, the company reported that some video calls were "improperly" handled through servers in China when they shouldn't have been. Such situations have led some entities to process the platform.
One of the phenomena that has been criticized and that scares users is zoombombing. It's a situation where malicious people (so-called trolls) interrupt public meetings on the app to broadcast pornography, violent images, or racist comments. This results from the fact that many in-app conversations allow people with a simple nine to ten digit code to enter, one of the reasons behind the popularity of zoombombing.
Google is not the first company to prohibit employees from using this video conferencing platform. Earlier this month, Elon Musk's SpaceX company also banned employees. According to Musk, the platform has "significant privacy and security concerns." On Monday, the New York City Department of Education asked schools to leave Zoom and switch to a Microsoft service.
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