Zoom has revealed its potential plan to increase encryption of video calls made by its paying customers, including businesses and schools. The video conferencing provider discussed plans to provide enhanced encryption to premium users on a recent call with civil liberties groups and organizations fighting sexual abuse. In an interview with Reuters, Zoom security consultant Alex Stamos said that the plan is subject to change and that it is currently unclear whether non-profit organizations or other users who need additional security, such as political dissidents, may qualify to access the company's premium accounts. During the pandemic, Zoom has attracted millions of free and paid customers because its video conferencing software allows users to join a meeting without registering first. However, this also led users of the service to disrupt their meetings with a practice known as ``zoom bombing,'' where hackers and pranksters join public and private meetings to which they have not been invited. .
Enhanced encryption
While businesses, schools, and nonprofit organizations can greatly benefit from the added security provided by encryption, security experts and law enforcement have warned that sexual predators and other criminals are using it more and more. encrypted communications to avoid detection online. This could be one of the reasons why Zoom plans to limit encryption to its paid users. The company recently released a white paper titled "E2E Encryption for Zoom Meetings" laying out its encryption plans. These plans have yet to be finalized according to the white paper which explains that Zoom has begun "a multi-stakeholder consultation process, including customers, crypto experts, and civil society" on the subject of encryption. After a series of security flaws earlier this year led organizations to ban Zoom, the company hired Alex Stamos and other experts to help it out. Stamos has provided Reuters with more details on how Zoom is improving its security, saying: “As Zoom tries to improve security, their trust and safety are also greatly increased. The CEO examines various arguments. The current plan includes paying customers and corporate accounts where the company knows who they are. "If Zoom were to add full encryption to every meeting on its service, the company's trust and safety team would not be able to add themselves as a participant, which would make fighting real-time abuse much more difficult. At the same time, Users who call Zoom meetings from their phones will not be able to do so if the company adopts an end-to-end model.Via Reuters