Items tagged with zoom
Due to COVID-19, work and school from home requirements have made video conferencing services critical. The top contenders, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Facebook Messenger Rooms and Google Meet, have their pros and cons, making each viable for different reasons. Google Meet, however, is now beginning to compete head-to-head with Zoom with the latest update. The update, which will be rolling out from October 30th onward, finally brings background replacement to the platform. Background replacement is a handy feature that might up your game, depending on the environment you're calling from, and it is finally coming to Google Meet. Google explains that “You can either use Google’s hand-picked...
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Given the COVID-19 pandemic that is waging across the world, particularly in the United States, virtual learning (and working) has become a big part of our daily lives. And one of the most-used teleconferencing solutions for students learning from home is Zoom, which allows them to visually connect with teachers and classmates, allowing for some semblance of normalcy. However, today has been disastrous as Zoom is down across much of the eastern seaboard of the and across various other large cities across the United States. Many school systems have fully integrated Zoom into their lesson plans, so it’s understandable that such an outage would kill those plans – at least for...
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Zoom has had more than its fair share of security issues over the last several months with the popularity of the service soaring while people around the world are working from home during the coronavirus pandemic. Zoom is currently working to fix a recently discovered zero-day vulnerability with its Windows client that could lead to arbitrary remote code execution. The vulnerability was discovered by a researcher who wishes to remain anonymous. According to Acros Security CEO Mitja Kolsek, the researcher who discovered the vulnerability didn't report it to the vendor or a third-party broker, but didn't object to Acros reporting the issue to Zoom. Acros Security analyzed the problem and determined...
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Ever since the coronavirus pandemic exploded earlier this year, videoconferencing service Zoom has seen its popularity soar. During its ascent, Zoom has faced a number of challenges related to privacy and security, so on May 22, the company released the draft design of its end-to-end encryption (E2EE) implementation. Zoom says that since that date it has engaged with civil liberty organizations, its CISO council, child safety advocates, encryption experts, government representatives, its users, and others to get feedback on the feature. Ultimately, Zoom says that it explored new technologies that would enable it to offer E2EE for all tiers of users, even free users. This week, the video conferencing...
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During the coronavirus pandemic, many people who have been working and learning from home have turned to video chat service Zoom. However, the service has had more than its fair share of issues with security and privacy over the last few months. Two new vulnerabilities have surfaced in the video chat platform that could allow malicious users to execute code on targeted computers. Both the vulnerabilities were discovered by Cisco Talos, which is a cyber threat intelligence team that provides network security solutions against emerging threats. Cisco Talos adhered to its coordinated disclosure policy, working with Zoom to ensure that both issues were addressed. One of the issues, TALOS-2020-1056,...
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Zoom has been riding high due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and has in the past few months become a household name as families, businesses, and schools have used the platform to keep people in touch. The company this week announced its fiscal Q1 2021 earnings and absolutely crushed it, reporting revenue of $328 million (up 169 percent year-over-year). Coming off that big earnings win, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan explained that the previously-announced end-to-end encryption functionality would not be available to all users. Instead, it will only be available to users that actually use the paid version of Zoom, which starts at $14.99 month per host. So, what about Zoom users with free accounts...
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Video calls have become all the rage over the last few months and Zoom remains one of the most popular choices for group video chat. However, recent security issues have caused many to look for alternatives. Facebook recently launched “Messenger Rooms”, a video chat service for up to 50 users and it just became widely available to users. Here is how you can set-up a group call on Messenger Rooms. How To Create A Facebook Messenger Room If you are the host of a video chat, you will need a Facebook account. If you are creating the “room” through a mobile app, you will want to double-check that you have the most recent version of the Facebook and Messenger mobile...
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Zoom is a video conferencing platform that has seen impressive growth during the coronavirus pandemic as it has been widely adopted by schools and businesses to support people working and learning from home. Zoom today announced the acquisition of Keybase, noting that this is part of its 90-day plan to strengthen the security of the video communications platform. Keybase launched in 2014 and is a secure messaging and file-sharing service that uses "deep encryption and security expertise." The Keybase team will be integrated into the Zoom family to help build end-to-end encryption that reaches the scalability needed for the platform. The video conferencing platform says that its goal is to provide...
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Mozilla has been on a roll with updates to its popular Firefox browser, and now the team has bumped the version number to 76. One of the biggest changes comes to Lockwise, Firefox’s built-in password manager. For starters, security has been improved, as you will now be required to enter your device password before you can access the Logins and Passwords page within Lockwise. It’s a small change, but adds another critical layer of security for users. Once you enter your device password, you have access to your stored site credentials/passwords for a total of 5 minutes. After that 5-minute period expires, you will have to login once again with your device password. Once you...
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If you are searching for a webcam upgrade to boost your Zoom or other video conferencing quality, you may already have it. Canon has released a free EOS Webcam Utility which allows many of its cameras to function as plug-and-play USB webcams on Windows computers. The idea of using a DSLR or mirrorless camera as a webcam is certainly nothing new. Many streamers already leverage these cameras using an HDMI capture card. These capture cards can be pricey – into the hundreds of dollars – and are currently in short supply. Still, they do provide the highest-quality option for cameras that can provide a “Clean HDMI-out” signal. Some cameras can provide HDMI out, but the signal...
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Earlier this month, Zoom proudly announced via a blog post that it has surpassed the 300 million daily active users (DAU), crowing that “more than 300 million people around the world are using Zoom during this challenging time.” It was an impressive figure for a company that is challenging the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Facebook for dominance in the video conferencing sector. But as it turns out, that number was bogus, and Zoom tried to quietly walk back the 300 million DAU figure by removing it from the original blog post. The only problem, however, is that the tally had already been widely reported, and The Verge noticed that the blog had been...
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It seems everyone is turning to Zoom these days, whether it because they are working from home and video conferencing with colleagues, or chatting with friends while practicing social distancing. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Dallas Mavericks owner turned Shark Tank star Mark Cuban hopped on for another reason—to share their insights with students. They were part of two different "Code Break" sessions, which is the title of Code.org's live interactive classroom. It is the world's largest of its kind, and is hosted by the organization's co-founder Hadi Partovi and his daughter Sofia. These sessions are neat ways to keep students engaged while stuck at home during the Coronavirus pandemic,...
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Facebook has introduced a new way for friends or coworkers to get together during the coronavirus pandemic, called Messenger Rooms. Facebook says that Messenger Rooms was designed to allow people to spend "quality time with friends, loved ones, and people who share their interests." Users can create a room from within Messenger or Facebook and then invite anyone to join the video call, even if they don't have a Facebook account. Messenger Rooms "will soon" hold up to 50 people with no time limit. Users can start and share rooms on Facebook through News Feed or Groups and Events. The social network says that it intends to soon add ways to allow users to create Rooms from Instagram Direct, WhatsApp,...
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Users have been having a love-hate relationship with Zoom, the popular video conferencing application that has a seen a surge in activity since the COVID-19 outbreak. The startup was not quite prepared for the influx of mainstream users, and Zoom's CEO admitted to some security and privacy "missteps." Some of those have been addressed in a new Zoom 5.0 software update. The update is part of Zoom's previously announced 90-day plan to identify and address security and privacy issues. Part of that entails adding support for AES 256-bit GCM encryption. It's still end-to-end encryption, but should make Zoom meetings more secure. “I am proud to reach this step in our 90-day plan, but this is...
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There is some more bad news for Zoom and some of its users. Security researchers recently discovered that the dark web and hacker forums are host to over 500,000 compromised Zoom accounts being offered up for sale at dirt cheap prices. Some of them are being sold for a fraction of a penny, while others are being given away for free. It almost feels like we are picking on Zoom at this point with so many headlines highlighting the company's security and privacy lapses in recent weeks. However, that is not the case. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan recently admitted that his video conferencing startup "moved too fast" in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and "had some missteps" along the way. Part of the problem,...
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Zoom has seen its business boom and its stock price grow in recent months in large part due to the coronavirus outbreak and an increasing number of people working from home. Its video conferencing service was one of the many that schools and businesses adopted to keep operating during the shelter-in-place orders in effect around the country. Zoom has now been hit with a class-action lawsuit by shareholders alleging that the company failed to disclose issues with the privacy and security of the platform. The lawsuit was filed by investor Michael Drieu in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit alleges that concerns over security and privacy flaws in the...
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Some school districts have reportedly banned the use of Zoom over security and privacy concerns, as weaknesses in the software have come to light in recent weeks. Speaking to those concerns, Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan admitted the startup "moved too fast" in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and "had some missteps." Complaints have ranged from security flaws that could potentially expose a user's Windows login credentials and shady data collection practices (which Zoom later apologized for), to having sessions disrupted by hackers. Known as "Zoombombing," this often results in a hacker displaying pornographic or racist images, along with using threatening language. It is easy to see why school...
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When it comes to videoconferencing software, Skype was once one of the go-to solution on the market for consumers and businesses alike. However, in recent years, Microsoft has fallen behind when it comes to keeping Skype ahead of the [feature] curve, and the current COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to new competitors like Zoom and Houseparty. In a bid to make Skype more appealing to a broader range of people, Microsoft is making it even easier to use the service. The software giant is introducing what it’s calling Skype Meet Now, which is completely free to use for anyone, and doesn't require you to download any additional software. In essence, Skype Meet Now is a fully...
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These are indeed strange times we live in. As the Coronavirus pandemic runs its course, more people are being sent home to work, and the sudden surge in telecommuting has resulted in a rise in the number of people turning to Zoom, a popular video conferencing application. It's not the only game in town, though, in case you want to use something different. That's not to say Zoom won't get the job done. It will, which is why it is so popular in the first place. However, there has also been some cause for concern in recent weeks. Zoom recently caught some heat over its data collection policies when it came to light that it was sharing private data with Facebook without permission. Zoom subsequently...
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Zoom, makers of the popular video conferencing software that goes by the same name, suddenly finds itself in the limelight, though not just because the Coronavirus outbreak has more people than ever working from home. Following a controversy over its data collection policy (which Zoom has apologized for), security researchers are warning of a potentially serious flaw in Windows version of the software. Through the Zoom client, users are able to send and receive text messages through an integrated chat interface. If a users tries to send a URL, it gets converted into a clickable hyperlink so that other users in the chat can quickly navigate to whatever page the sender is serving up. It is a pretty...
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Hackers are always on the look out for the "next big thing" to exploit, either by finding vulnerabilities in an app or by latching onto brand recognition. With the coronavirus pandemic, hackers have aimed at certain software platforms that are being used heavily by workers stuck at home. One of the applications that are being increasingly targeted is Zoom. Zoom has seen a significant increase in its user base since the coronavirus outbreak and security researchers have seen a substantial increase in the registration of Zoom-themed domains for malicious purposes. Zoom is a cloud-based communication platform that can be used for both audio and video conferences, online meetings, chat, and collaboration...
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Businesses and schools are turning to online meetings and classes during the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic as people stay home to help prevent spreading the virus due to human-to-human contact. One of the videoconferencing solutions that have seen a significant uptick in adoption in recent weeks is called Zoom. The company has now issued an apology after it was discovered that the company was sharing data with Facebook without first disclosing it to customers. Zoom recently issued a statement that says when it originally implemented the "Login with Facebook" feature using the Facebook SDK for iOS, it wanted to give users another convenient way to access its platform. Zoom says that it was made...
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