in

Zoom skyrockets to 200 million users, puts 90-day hold on features to address security flaws

[ad_1]

In context: The use of conferencing app Zoom has ballooned, going from about 10 million daily users last December to over 200 million as of March. Primarily designed with enterprise customers in mind, it has now spread to the education and private sectors as well.

With so much added attention and use, it was not surprising when reports emerged that the app was leaking personal data and had a flaw that could allow attackers to retrieve users’ Windows credentials. Such problems are common when any software gains widespread use, particularly when the program is used in ways that the designers did not foresee.

“Our platform was built primarily for enterprise customers,” explained Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan in a blog post on Wednesday. “We did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home. We now have a much broader set of users who are utilizing our product in a myriad of unexpected ways, presenting us with challenges we did not anticipate when the platform was conceived.”

Of course, that does not excuse the security failures nor mitigate the blowback from the public, nor should it. Yuan said that the company is committed to fixing these issues and looking for others that may be related to the unexpected rise in consumer use. So for the next three months, the developers will freeze work on current feature updates and focus solely on hardening the security of Zoom.

Yuan also said that the company would be transparent about the changes it makes and problems that it finds.

“Transparency has always been a core part of our culture,” the CEO said. “Starting next week, I will host a weekly webinar on Wednesdays at 10am PT to provide privacy and security updates to our community.”

Those interested in joining the webinar can sign up on Zoom’s website.

Masthead credit: Tada Images



[ad_2]

Source link

View: India can avoid devastation only if, carefully, economic activity is normalised and lockdown curbs removed

Inoculating the world may mean reviving old curbs on patents