As part of Zoom’s 90-day promise to keep their video conferencing apps more secure, the company has implemented several updates and key of which will solve the Zoombombing issue. As more and more people work from home during these pandemic times, most employees have opted for zoom as their go-to video conferencing tool. The videoconferencing software company that went public last year has clearly been having a moment in the spotlight during the pandemic.
The app’s main selling point, at least to the broader consumer world, is that it offers free, 40-minute conference calls with up to 100 attendees. It’s easy to use — people don’t need a login to access a meeting — and the interface is relatively intuitive. However, those same features put people at risk, and one of the main security flaw was Zoombombing.
Zoombombing is the offensive and troubling drop-ins to Zoom calls by strangers who have had access to the zoom caller ID and most of these drop-ins have been offensive during a ready serious call causing a lot of distractions during the video call. They’ve especially caused problems with so many schools turning to it as the best video conferencing app solution for teachers to keep in contact with students.
The 5.0 update released at the end of April took some major strides in that regard, but the service still has a ways to go to clear up every concern. Zoom announced today that a May 9 update will enable a number of features to help free account users combat Zoombombing and, even more, surprising given the aforementioned feature freeze, the service is adding a new transcription tool, according to TechRadar.
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To resolve the Zoombombing issue, the May 9 update is simply defaulting free or basic accounts to security features that were previously available. The primary example is requiring passwords for all meetings, but it is also instituting waiting rooms and host-only screen sharing as the default as well. As Zoombombing appears to be mostly people simply taking advantage of the relatively predictable room codes, these steps should largely eliminate it.
