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The Zoom video conferencing platform is implementing a series of measures aimed at stopping criticism of how it has handled security as users flock to the application during the coronavirus pandemic.
Zoom Chief Executive Eric Yuan outlined the steps the company is taking against issues like data hacking and harassment by people blocking sessions in what’s known as “zoombombing.”
At the end of the week, paid account holders will be able to select which regions their data will be routed through their sessions in a move apparently aimed at concerns about information passing through China, where it could be subject to espionage.
“As a reminder, meeting servers in China have always been geofenced with the goal of ensuring that user meeting data outside of China is kept outside of China,” Zoom said in an online post.
The Silicon Valley startup also said it is working with cyber security company Luta Security to review the processes and its “bug bounty” program that pays rewards to investigators who find security flaws in their operations.
Zoom also addressed a recent report that users’ login information was being sold by criminals on the “dark web.”
The credentials were likely stolen elsewhere on the Internet, or by malicious code entered into people’s computers, according to Zoom adviser Alex Stamos, former Facebook security chief.
It is not uncommon for hackers to take stolen passwords and account names in data breaches and then check to see if people use them for other online services.
Zoom said it is building systems to “detect if people are testing username and password pairings and prevent them from trying again.”
Zoom’s security enhancements also include a toolbar to easily access features like blocking strangers’ chats and making password compliance a default setting.
“Successfully scaling a heavy video platform to such a size without appreciable downtime and within weeks is literally unprecedented in the history of the Internet,” Stamos said in a post.
“The related security challenges are fascinating.”
India this week banned the use of Zoom for remote government meetings, saying “it is not a secure platform.”
The New York school system has also banned the video conferencing platform for security reasons.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in several U.S. states are investigating the company’s privacy and security practices, and the FBI has warned of the hijacking of Zoom’s sessions.
According to Yuan, the number of people who participated in Zoom meetings daily eclipsed 200 million in March, up from just 10 million at the end of last year.
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