{"id":15287,"date":"2020-04-22T12:14:38","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T16:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/?p=15287"},"modified":"2020-04-22T12:14:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T16:14:38","slug":"the-zoombombing-saga-is-just-beginning-and-the-heroic-open-source-video-conferencing-alternatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.elearninginside.com\/the-zoombombing-saga-is-just-beginning-and-the-heroic-open-source-video-conferencing-alternatives\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Zoombombing\u2019 Saga Is Just Beginning \u2014 And The Heroic Open Source Video Conferencing Alternatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zoom found itself as the instant savior, and immediately after, the villain, in our new working and learning arrangements<\/a>. If found itself pray of the short-lived optimism of the markets \u2014achieving a $35 billion capitalization, on paper as valuable as Xiaomi, Activision or Nissan\u2014 after becoming synonymous with virtual classrooms and meetings. Numerous concerns and cybersecurity risks have cropped up<\/a>. But are they merited?<\/p>\n

This article was first published by LMSPulse<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What are the accusations?<\/h2>\n

Indiscriminate collection of private data<\/h3>\n

The free version of Zoom is being used to collect unreasonable amounts of personal user information. Security researcher and policy analyst Bruce Schneier pointed out<\/a> that the user policy entitled Zoom to use this information for basically any kind of commercial purpose, including selling it to third parties. On top of it, the Facebook app used to collect all sorts of information about the computer and telemetry data. Before the software was updated, this would happen whether the user had a Facebook account or not. (This still happens if the user hasn\u2019t updated Zoom recently.) Similar data collection and sharing is known with LinkedIn and Windows applications<\/a>. Some users have also reporting stumbling upon lots of personal information<\/a> from other users from the app, with little effort.<\/p>\n

Zoom changed the policies on March 29<\/a>, along with a series of blog posts and public statements. The changes clarify that there is no personal data selling at this point, but it is still being collected.<\/p>\n

\u2018Zoombombing\u2019: Strangers showing up in the middle of online classroom<\/h3>\n

Related convenience, as well to the lax security practices, malicious actors are able to try and find access to Zoom rooms and meetings where anyone with the link can join, speak and share their screen. You could even get ahold of \u201czWarDial,\u201d<\/a> an app that tries to guess unsecure Zoom rooms at random with a reported 4% success rate. Developed by \u201cwhite hat\u201d researchers (aka good guys), it allowed to collect key data about the meeting and in some cases personal information supplied by the host.<\/p>\n

The level of trolling and abuse this feature allows has only human imagination at the limit. More serious argument deem this a boon for industrial espionage operations<\/a> which make the China connections \u2014see below\u2014 all the more worrisome.<\/p>\n

Zoom\u2019s initial reaction was deflection<\/a>. It framed the sharing of Zoom links on social media akin to sharing a password with the world. Upon further pressure and journalistic denounces, it made some UI updates.<\/p>\n

To sum up: \u201cZoom is not suited for secrets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malwar-y: Governments and Federal Agents denounce, discourage, disable Zoom<\/h3>\n

Zoom had to change some some of its functionality after concerns over too invasive practices that attempted to supersede the user\u2019s deliberate permission. This included the installation process on Mac computers<\/a>, considered for many \u201ctoo smooth for comfort\u201d \u2014or plain shady\u2014 and access to information from other apps, like in the case of contacts and calendar data<\/a> mentioned earlier.<\/p>\n

Do Zoom engineers even know what encryption means?<\/h3>\n

There are glaring loopholes in the Zoom application itself, some benign, some downright dangerous.<\/p>\n