Is zoom safe to download and use. Zoom security issues: What's gone wrong and what's been fixed

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Technology and the Internet. A new law that will let you opt out of the online data economy goes into effect on Jan. Last July, security researcher Jonathan Leitschuh exposed a flaw that allowed hackers to take over Mac webcams through the app. The company fixed the problem after a public interest research center filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

Thousands of personal Zoom videos were left viewable on the open web, including one-on-one therapy sessions, telehealth calls, and elementary school classes, the Washington Post reported.

Several people identified in the videos told the Post they did not know how the videos made their way online. Experts say the company now seems to be making more serious efforts to identify and quickly patch vulnerabilities. Zoom marketed its communications as protected by end-to-end encryption, which makes it, in effect, impossible for anyone, including the company itself, to spy on them.

Recently, however, the Intercept revealed Zoom has been using a different type of encryption, called transport encryption, which enables the company to decode the content of calls. That means the company could hypothetically be susceptible to pressure from government authorities to disclose communications, said Bill Marczak, a fellow at the Citizen Lab and a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley. But reporters or dissidents under oppressive regimes, government officials discussing classified information or big companies that want to keep their business strategies confidential might want to use a more secure platform, Budington said.

The company announced it had removed the feature in an April 2 blog post. They can also record audio and video from meetings and save a record of group chats. Because Zoom is so easy to use, it has also been easy for people to exploit the app to sow mischief or chaos. As USC and local school districts transitioned to online meetings , they reported getting Zoombombed with racist taunts and pornographic images. On Tuesday, Berkeley High School students were in the middle of a video conference when a man joined the Zoom meeting, exposed himself and shouted obscenities, the Mercury News reported.

The New York Times found scores of accounts on Instagram and on Reddit and 4Chan message boards where users coordinated to share meeting passwords and derail Zoom meetings. Generate a new ID for every meeting you launch using the options panel, instead of using your personal meeting ID.

You can toggle settings to ensure meeting participants need a password to access the meeting, which will further protect from disruption. Beginning April 4 , Zoom enabled the Waiting Room feature by default, requiring additional password settings for free users. Read more: The best VPN services for By now, you're used to hearing it from the privacy-minded: Don't use Facebook to log in to other sites and software unless you want Facebook to have data on what you're doing.

Fair enough. But what to do when Zoom gets caught sending some of your analytics data to Facebook -- whether or not you even have a Facebook account? Courtesy of Facebook's Graph API, Zoom was telling Facebook whenever you opened the Zoom app, what phone or device you were using, and your phone carrier, location and a unique advertising identifier. Motherboard also reported that Zoom had updated its iOS app so the app would stop sending certain data to Facebook.

In a March blog post , Zoom addressed the issue, noting "our customers' privacy is incredibly important to us, and therefore we decided to remove the Facebook SDK in our iOS client and have reconfigured the feature so that users will still be able to log in with Facebook via their browser. As late as March , Zoom's privacy policy contained some breezy language about its relationship to third-party data crunchers, which gives one reason to question where else -- and to what extent -- that data was being shared or sold that we didn't know about.

We use these tools to help us improve your advertising experience such as serving advertisements on our behalf across the Internet, serving personalized ads on our website, and providing analytics services ," the policy said at the time.

But at the end of March, Zoom updated its privacy policy. In a statement following the move, Zoom said that while it wasn't changing any of its actual practices, it wanted to make its language clearer. Regarding its relationship to third-party data handlers described above, the company drew a line in the sand between its product and its website.

No data regarding user activity on the Zoom platform -- including video, audio, and chat content -- is ever provided to third parties for advertising purposes," the company said. You should probably review your Zoom and device security settings with an eye toward minimizing permissions, and make sure any anti-tracking software on your device is up to date and running. It's also important to keep your Zoom app up to date so your privacy is always protected with the latest security patches.

Luckily, Zoom recently rolled out a new automatic update feature that makes this process a whole lot more convenient. For more, check out how to use the sneaky Zoom Escaper tool to get out of your meetings, how to combat Zoom anxiety and Zoom fatigue , and how to make your video meetings a little less weird.

Unless you enable it, your conference will only utilize Zoom's "enhanced encryption," a much less secure protocol. You can enable E2EE in your account settings, but you must also enter and confirm your billing information—even if E2EE is free. Additionally, enabling E2EE will block Zoom's in-conference features.

Other services are not so strict. Related: Is Zoom Safe to Use? Zoombombing , the act of entering a conference uninvited and engaging in obscene or otherwise disruptive behavior, was widely reported at the start of the pandemic. The process continues today. Zoom has tried to address the problem with passwords and waiting areas, but with no success. As per researchers , Zoombombing has continued due to legitimate conference members sharing passwords with attackers and attackers disguising themselves as legitimate members.

In February , the FTC reached a settlement with Zoom over a report alleging that the company violated a number of security protocols.

     

- Is zoom safe to download and use

 

If you find yourself facing a cyber security disaster, IT Governance is here to help. Our Cyber Incident Response service provides the help you need to deal with the threat, as our experts guide you through the recovery process. But software vulnerabilities are just one of the many issues you should be concerned about. And do they understand the dangers of phishing scams? Luke Irwin is a writer for IT Governance. Until recently, you had probably never heard of the video conferencing software Zoom.

Do you just use a VPN and antivirus, or do you take other precautions? If you do, please tell us about them in the comments. Your email address will not be published. So yeah, bottom line — Zoom is safe to use. Hackers could eavesdrop on your connections and use packet sniffers like WireShark to steal sensitive data from you like your Zoom logging credentials, for instance.

Really crafty hackers can set up their own fake networks that imitate real hotspots like coffee shop, airport, or train station networks. Use Antivirus Software Hackers often use malware to infect your device in an attempt to compromise your Zoom connections and other traffic. With a nearby server, your speeds will be faster. Does the VPN offer split-tunneling? Yes, Zoom-bombing is a thing.

Much like photo-bombing, which sees people insert themselves into unsuspecting people's snaps, Zoom-bombing refers to the practice of users logging into Zoom calls that they were not invited to. But how is Zoom-bombing possible? Zoom uses a unique meeting ID number for every chat on its platform. The number is between nine and 11 digits long and is used to get access to a conference. However, meeting ID numbers can be easily guessed.

As a result, pranksters are joining calls and creating havoc using features such as screen sharing. At best, it's very annoying. At worst, it compromises your data, especially if you are on a confidential business call. The solution is simple—set a password for every Zoom call you participate in.

Zoom has also introduced a way to suspend participants' activities, meaning you can boot imposters out of your call. Read our comprehensive guide to Zoom-bombing to learn more. If you want to use Zoom on a desktop machine, you have two options: the desktop app or the web app. You should always use the web browser version; this gets new security enhancements much faster than the desktop app. And aside from the updates, the web version is still more secure.

Setting a unique and strong password for each meeting remains the best way of ensuring that only the people you want in your meeting can attend. Last year, Zoom made the sensible move to turn password protection on by default. But just to be clear, your zoom account password and meeting password are not the same — they are two different passwords. You should also avoid reusing meeting passwords.

While you may find that the quality of your video call is better on the app, the web browser version gets security enhancements much faster. And aside from the updates, the web version is still more secure. That's because it lives in a browser's sandbox, meaning it has far fewer permissions and a reduced ability to cause issues across your entire operating system.

When you click a link to join a meeting, your browser will open a new tab and prompt you to use or install the Zoom desktop software. But in the fine print, there's a link to "join from your browser.

So, there you have it; providing you take the right preventative measures and only use Zoom where it is appropriate, you should be okay. Netitude has been delivering secure, reliable and productive IT for business growth, since If your business needs advice, additional IT support or business technology solutions, get in touch with one of our experts today, we're always happy to help!

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