Amid the growing popularity of the application, some hackers or simple users interrupt meetings on the platform, without being invited, and share harmful or even pornographic content.
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For weeks Zoom Video Communications Inc., creator of the video conferencing app Zoom, has enjoyed its moment of glory, with its share price skyrocketing and insatiable demand among consumers and businesses.
The company had more than 200 million daily meeting participants in March, compared to a previous record of approximately 10 million in December. Obviously, thanks to the fact that almost everyone was forced to move their work and all social interactions from real to virtual, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In recent days, however, the company has faced a serious security problem. Hackers have targeted the video conferencing service because of its popularity, leading to an FBI warning to consumers about so-called ‘zoombombing’.
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The practice is that someone successfully invades a public or sometimes even private meeting, through the video conferencing platform, to transmit scandalous videos, pornography or other harmful content.
Now the US authorities They warn pranksters and hackers about the possible legal implications of zoombombing. According to an FBI statement, prosecutors may file charges, including “disruption of a public meeting, computer intrusion, use of a computer to commit a crime, hate crimes, fraud, or transmitting threatening communications.”
Some of charges include fines and possible imprisonment. The statement adds that if you or someone you know becomes a victim of teleconferencing hacking, you can report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Zoom’s answer
The news prompted Zoom CEO Eric Yuan to address some privacy criticism in a blog post Wednesday night.
The app currently has “a much broader set of users, who use our product in countless unexpected ways,” said Yuan, acknowledging that the company “has not met the privacy and security expectations of the community, nor ours.”
In addition, it has emerged that Zoom will soon enable the use of passwords and waiting rooms, by default, for all meetings, in an effort to prevent ‘zoombombing’.
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