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>The government of Taiwan banned official use of Zoom due to security concerns, as have New York State schools, the U.S. Senate, and the German ministry of fore

by _b3dj 6y ago

>The government of Taiwan banned official use of Zoom due to security concerns, as have New York State schools, the U.S. Senate, and the German ministry of foreign affairs. This is good enough reason to not use it. Also I stopped using zoom and trying to avoiding it as much as possible after the very first vulnerability scandal[0] came about [0] https://medium.com/bugbountywriteup/zoom-zero-day-4-million-webcams-maybe-an-rce-just-get-them-to-visit-your-website-ac75c83f4ef5 https://medium.com/bugbountywriteup/zoom-zero-day-4-million-...

Polylactic_acid 6y ago
Iirc google also banned the installation of the zoom client on work devices.
- angott 6y ago
  To be honest, that's also because they probably want their employees to use one of their 37 different video-conferencing apps.
  - inetsee 6y ago
    China has been accused a number of times of engaging in industrial espionage. As a company developing a lot of high technology products, I think Google is entirely justified in keep Zoom out of its technology infrastructure.
    - angott 6y ago
      If it wasn't clear, I was just being sarcastic about Google's huge number of messaging products... I fully agree with your statement, their move totally makes sense from an IP protection standpoint.
      - dhimes 6y ago
        It's three products but it has 27 different names.
  - buran77 6y ago
    Funny and true but also because companies should really scrutinize this kind of software more carefully. Your meeting app "participates" in some of the most delicate conversations. I used Zoom exactly once. I was invited, I installed the software and Chrome extension as a regular user. I had a mediocre experience in the meeting but didn't pay too much attention, and then proceeded to uninstall the software when I got a prompt that I need to do it as admin. For me this was a clear warning signal that they want the software to be there especially in companies (that didn't block it) where many users may end up installing it but then aren't able to remove and just forget about it. Then I started reading about their installer "mishap", their general encryption scheme weakness "mishap", their encryption key routing through China (!!!) "mishap", the redefining of E2EE "mishap", the default settings "mishap", and the mishaps just piled on to the point where I personally believe only a great deal of ignorance or blissfulness could allow a company to still use it. I get schools and individuals do, it's "free", meaning they don't pay with money and they don't need to look any further than that. But I refuse to ever use it again and when I got Zoom invitations I politely declined, offered to host the meeting myself, or else just asked to be sent the meeting notes on mail. I have no reason to believe Zoom intends to fix their issues but rather to hide them better next time.
  - ma2rten 6y ago
    I'm not sure if you are kidding, but that's not the reason. It was a decision by the security team and a reaction to multiple security issues that were found in the Zoom client. Google employees can still use the Zoom web client on work computers.
  - jaimex2 6y ago
    Not really, Google happily let its employees use competitor products. There's no real precedent.
  - ace32229 6y ago
    Sounds like a Silicon Valley scene!
- eythian 6y ago
  I'm not surprised. My company has also done this. Basically it's because we don't have an agreement with them about data protection, and we can't have company information going over 3rd party systems without a contract.
otoburb 6y ago
>>[...] as have New York State schools The NYC Department of Education (DOE), one of the largest in the nation, banned Zoom in April but "following several weeks of collaboration with the company, [NYC DOE is] now able to offer Zoom as a safe, secure platform for use across the DOE" as per a letter Chancellor Carranza wrote on May 6th, 2020.[1] Public school teachers tried other video conferencing solutions but, for better or for worse, Zoom's UX was always easier to use or less janky than other paid or opensource offerings at scale -- and that's saying something because Zoom's UX isn't what any of us might call super smooth. [1] https://connectdocs.blackboard.com/xythoswfs/webui/_xy-1309165_1-t_47Sm5UKr https://connectdocs.blackboard.com/xythoswfs/webui/_xy-13091...
stronglikedan 6y ago
Is there a non-Zoom client that can connect to Zoom meetings? My company implemented RingCentral about a year ago, which appears to just use a rebranded Zoom architecture for the online meeting component. They're not going to get rid of it anytime soon.
- daxelrod 6y ago
  Zoom does have a SIP/H.323 bridge https://zoom.us/roomconnector https://zoom.us/roomconnector . I believe it's the decision of the meeting host's organization whether to enable it, and there may be an extra cost associated with it.
- kd913 6y ago
  I may be wrong, but Firefox 76 made some hooplah over supporting zoom in browser.

by _b3dj 6y ago

Polylactic_acid 6y ago

Iirc google also banned the installation of the zoom client on work devices.

angott 6y ago
To be honest, that's also because they probably want their employees to use one of their 37 different video-conferencing apps.
- inetsee 6y ago
  China has been accused a number of times of engaging in industrial espionage. As a company developing a lot of high technology products, I think Google is entirely justified in keep Zoom out of its technology infrastructure.
  - angott 6y ago
    If it wasn't clear, I was just being sarcastic about Google's huge number of messaging products... I fully agree with your statement, their move totally makes sense from an IP protection standpoint.
    - dhimes 6y ago
      It's three products but it has 27 different names.
- buran77 6y ago
  Funny and true but also because companies should really scrutinize this kind of software more carefully. Your meeting app "participates" in some of the most delicate conversations. I used Zoom exactly once. I was invited, I installed the software and Chrome extension as a regular user. I had a mediocre experience in the meeting but didn't pay too much attention, and then proceeded to uninstall the software when I got a prompt that I need to do it as admin. For me this was a clear warning signal that they want the software to be there especially in companies (that didn't block it) where many users may end up installing it but then aren't able to remove and just forget about it. Then I started reading about their installer "mishap", their general encryption scheme weakness "mishap", their encryption key routing through China (!!!) "mishap", the redefining of E2EE "mishap", the default settings "mishap", and the mishaps just piled on to the point where I personally believe only a great deal of ignorance or blissfulness could allow a company to still use it. I get schools and individuals do, it's "free", meaning they don't pay with money and they don't need to look any further than that. But I refuse to ever use it again and when I got Zoom invitations I politely declined, offered to host the meeting myself, or else just asked to be sent the meeting notes on mail. I have no reason to believe Zoom intends to fix their issues but rather to hide them better next time.
- ma2rten 6y ago
  I'm not sure if you are kidding, but that's not the reason. It was a decision by the security team and a reaction to multiple security issues that were found in the Zoom client. Google employees can still use the Zoom web client on work computers.
- jaimex2 6y ago
  Not really, Google happily let its employees use competitor products. There's no real precedent.
- ace32229 6y ago
  Sounds like a Silicon Valley scene!
eythian 6y ago
I'm not surprised. My company has also done this. Basically it's because we don't have an agreement with them about data protection, and we can't have company information going over 3rd party systems without a contract.

otoburb 6y ago

>>[...] as have New York State schools The NYC Department of Education (DOE), one of the largest in the nation, banned Zoom in April but "following several weeks of collaboration with the company, [NYC DOE is] now able to offer Zoom as a safe, secure platform for use across the DOE" as per a letter Chancellor Carranza wrote on May 6th, 2020.[1] Public school teachers tried other video conferencing solutions but, for better or for worse, Zoom's UX was always easier to use or less janky than other paid or opensource offerings at scale -- and that's saying something because Zoom's UX isn't what any of us might call super smooth. [1] https://connectdocs.blackboard.com/xythoswfs/webui/_xy-1309165_1-t_47Sm5UKr https://connectdocs.blackboard.com/xythoswfs/webui/_xy-13091...

stronglikedan 6y ago

Is there a non-Zoom client that can connect to Zoom meetings? My company implemented RingCentral about a year ago, which appears to just use a rebranded Zoom architecture for the online meeting component. They're not going to get rid of it anytime soon.

daxelrod 6y ago
Zoom does have a SIP/H.323 bridge https://zoom.us/roomconnector https://zoom.us/roomconnector . I believe it's the decision of the meeting host's organization whether to enable it, and there may be an extra cost associated with it.
kd913 6y ago
I may be wrong, but Firefox 76 made some hooplah over supporting zoom in browser.