How did Zoom survive the blockade of FBI and FTC?
How did
Zoom survive the blockade of FBI and FTC? Zoom (ZM) experienced spatial growth right in the midst of the global coronavirus epidemic, but its rapid rise was almost derailed by security flaws in the video chat service.
After a 90-day standstill with a series of security fixes, privacy features, and feature upgrades to focus on nothing but the security of the service, Yahoo Finance's show of Zoom to Company of the Year this week helped reverse potentially catastrophic events.
Zoom marketing manager Janine Pelosi told Yahoo Finance,
"Look, there were use cases we had never seen before. The product needed new, brand new uses and different adjustments to them," said Pelosi, adding that they are now setting up many optional features by default.
Security experts see the improvements in Zoom as a welcome step.
"They've made positive changes to the way they protect data. As problems arise and become more common, they're trying to solve them, which is a good thing," Justin Cappos, a computer scientist at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering, told Yahoo Finance. . "
The company recorded 78 percent, 169 percent, 355 percent and 367 percent increase in year-over-year revenues, respectively.
The company has seen year-over-year revenue growth of 78 percent, 169 percent, 355 percent and 367 percent over the past four financial quarters, respectively. Traditional corporate customers accounted for the lion's share of these huge increases, while ordinary consumers generated huge traffic as Zoom birthday parties, weddings, meetings, lectures, those who want to stay in touch with friends and family.
The platform, which was created to serve the institution, officially gave life to ordinary users.
When Zoom was founded in 2011, it operated largely as a platform designed for businesses and universities. However, the pandemic changed all that. Suddenly, consumers of all stripes were now using the software that included 40 minutes of free tier.
Moreover, the imperative to learn from home has prompted children in K-12 (kindergarten to grade 12) schools around the world to take advantage of the platform to enable them to continue their education.
As lockdowns increased in March, security issues began to emerge. The most prominent subject was the so-called "Zoom bombings", in which unwanted users attended meetings and swore, spilled racist language, or posted pornographic images on the screen.
The issue has become such a big problem that the FBI has issued a warning on the matter.
The issue became such a big problem that the FBI issued a warning on the matter and the New York City Department of Education, which oversees the largest school system in the country, banned 1.1 million students from using Zoom in April. In May, it allowed students to use Zoom again.
But that's not all. The company also faced a series of class action lawsuits over security breaches. According to the information provided by the Washington Post, it was learned that recorded videos of each Zoom user in primary school classes from therapy sessions were stored unprotected on the open web for days before being transferred to Zoom's secure cloud. (There is a HIPAA compliant Zoom version that meets the privacy standards set by law.)
Meanwhile, a New York Times study revealed a data mining feature where Zoom users were linked to their LinkedIn profiles. This also allowed meeting attendees to view profile information without the consent of other users. There were also questions about why the company sent chats over China, why certain security features, including the waiting room option and meeting passwords, were turned off by default.
Perhaps most disturbingly, The Intercept said in late March that Zoom offered end-to-end encryption, but this information did not reflect the truth. Shortly after this report, in early April, CEO Eric Yuan stated that Zoom will focus specifically on security.
Zoom founder Eric Yuan speaks before the Nasdaq opening ceremony on April 18, 2019 in New York. The videoconferencing software company announced that the IPO was worth $ 36 per share, an estimated $ 9.2 billion.
Earlier this month Zoom COO Aparna Bawa told Yahoo Finance, "I can say that there were several important things happening in March that really brought things to a point." he said.
We saw that we were not prepared as a necessary way.
"The first is that new users flock to the platform. Big meetings and online meeting numbers that many users have posted publicly. You will appreciate that when face-to-face meeting was not possible, we encountered very different usage habits by a large number of people. We saw that we were not ready.
Bawa attributed one of the reasons why Zoom faced such privacy and security issues, as IT departments wanted the freedom to choose how to set up the service.
“I don't want your waiting rooms. I will get your passwords, but you know I only want an authenticated user experience, so we have businesses from my company that say I will only allow authenticated users to attend your meetings, ”he said.
"Now, for our customers with such requests, the ZOOM experience is configurable according to what they prioritize."
Consumers weren't inclined to wonder if certain security features were enabled by default. And this caused Zoom to focus on incorporation and sweep security issues under the carpet.
The process that resulted in the release of Zoom 5.0 on April 27 took 90 days. The average problems experienced by most users, passwords, waiting rooms security improvements were made. Also included a new security tab directing users to important chat settings.
The company acquired Keybase, a company specializing in end-to-end encryption for video chat services. The expected end-to-end encryption feature began rolling out as a technical preview in October.
Zoom has recently launched a feature that is shared publicly online that sends alert notifications to meetings at risk.
"This happens very often," Bawa began his words. "Unfortunately, allowing the link to be shared is a good use for Zoom, but this feature also allows the public to publish meeting IDs. Now Zoom encourages its users to make meetings private, which is really important."
In November, the Federal Trade Commission reached an agreement with Zoom on charges of misleading consumers about its security and encryption capabilities.
In November, the Federal Trade Commission reached an agreement with Zoom on charges of misleading consumers about its security and encryption capabilities. The company reached an agreement that required the implementation of various new protection measures and practices, including multi-factor authentication. Andrew Smith, director of the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Consumer Protection Bureau, drew attention to how widespread Zoom technology has become during the COVID-19 outbreak, in a statement regarding the agreement.
“During the epidemic, families, schools, social groups, businesses - practically everyone - used video conferencing for communication. This makes the security of the platforms more critical than ever. Zoom's security practices did not match its promises. However, with the updates made, it will help you ensure that the meetings provided on the platform and the data about their users are protected. "
Source:
https://finance.yahoo.com/