Zoom users top 300 million as ban list grows
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[April 23, 2020] (Reuters)
- Zoom <ZM.O> video conferencing app's user
base grew by another 50% to 300 million in the last three weeks, as the
company fought to quell a backlash around security and safety that has
seen a number of governments and firms ban its applications.
Chief Executive Eric Yuan gave the numbers late on Wednesday in an
update on the platform's 90-day security plan, while also outlining the
rollout next week of a new version of the app with more encryption
features.
Zoom shares closed up nearly 5% in New York, and at $150.25 are now back
close to peaks close to $160 hit last month before the security row
erupted.
German carmaker Daimler was the latest company on Thursday to say it had
banned use of Zoom for all corporate content until further notice.
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"There are some reports about security gaps and challenges regarding
data protection of Zoom," Mercedes-Benz Cars spokesperson Christoph
Sedlmayr said.
"This does not comply with the security requirements of our company.
Therefore, we can confirm that Daimler prohibits the use of Zoom for
corporate content until further notice."
Bloomberg News also reported wireless technology firm NXP had banned the
app's use with external parties, and that employees at Sweden's Ericsson
had been advised not to use it.
That adds to a list that also includes many schools around the world,
Elon Musk's venture SpaceX, Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered as well
as governments in Germany, Taiwan and Singapore.
The coronavirus-driven lockdown of millions of people globally has
driven huge growth in use of platforms like Zoom, Skype or Microsoft's
Teams application, with Zoom already reporting last month a 2,000% surge
in user numbers compared to its best days last year.
It said on Wednesday growth had continued over the past three weeks,
driving user numbers to 300 million daily, even as it faced a barrage of
criticism from cyber security experts and users alike over bugs in its
codes and the lack of end-to-end encryption of its chat sessions.
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Members of the city commission to prevent the spread of coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) vote during a meeting via Zoom video link in Lviv,
Ukraine March 26, 2020. REUTERS/Roman Baluk
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Zoom has appointed former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos and a number of
other experts to attack these concerns and security researchers say it has
responded robustly to the issues.
Researchers say "Zoombombing" incidents, where uninvited guests crash meetings,
were caused by simple choices made by some of the millions of new users of the
app and that the company has taken sensible steps including giving hosts the
ability to lock meetings and restrict what attendees can do.
For corporate customers, however, the issue of encryption and who keeps records
or can listen in to calls is more important, be it to safeguard valuable company
information, or meet privacy obligations to customers.
Lea Kissner, formerly global lead of privacy technology at Google, and now a
security consultant for Zoom, said the 256-bit GCM encryption being introduced
with Zoom 5.0 next week was in line with what others in the industry were using.
All Zoom customers will switch to the new cryptographic mode from May 30,
Kissner said.
To account for criticism that the company had routed some data through Chinese
servers, Zoom also said an account admin can now choose data center regions for
their meetings.
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(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; additional
reporting by Kanishka Singh; writing by Patrick Graham; editing by Supriya
Kurane and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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