The popular video conferencing application Zoom has been having A Moment during the Covid-19 pandemic. But it's not all positive. As many people's professional and social lives move completely online, Zoom use has exploded. But with this boom has come added scrutiny from security and privacy researchers—and they keep finding more problems, including two fresh zero day vulnerabilities revealed Wednesday morning.
The debate has underscored the inherent tension of balancing mainstream needs with robust security. Go too far in either direction, and valid criticism awaits.
"Zoom has never been known as the most hardcore secure and private service, and there have certainly been some critical vulnerabilities, but in many cases there aren't a lot of other options," says security researcher Kenn White. "It's absolutely fair to put public pressure on Zoom to make things safer for regular users. But I wouldn't tell people 'don't use Zoom.' It's like everyone is driving a 1989 Geo and security folks are worrying about the air flow in a Ferrari."
Zoom isn't the only video conferencing option, but displaced businesses, schools, and organizations have coalesced around it amid widespread shelter in place orders. It's free to use, has an intuitive interface, and can accommodate group video chats for up to 100 people. There's a lot to like. By contrast, Skype's group video chat feature only supports 50 participants for free, and live streaming options like Facebook Live don't have the immediacy and interactivity of putting everyone in a digital room together. Google offers multiple video chat options—maybe too many, if you're looking for ..
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