Zoom is compromised

[dorothy g]

Dear Raoul,  All of the major meeting platforms have serious issues. I do
not believe zoom is more disastrous than the others. It was not obscure,
tens of millions of people all over the world have been using it for years
and this is not the first time issues have come up.  I agree that we should
watch carefully to see if they improve on the existing situation. Please
point me to independent reviews of Jitsi before I even think about it.  I
hope security researchers have also looked into it.  Perhaps we should look
at Houseparty?(Joke)

The fact is that capitalist competition is driving some of the public
discussion (e.g.competition for software used in schools - general approach
get them to use it in school and they will never leave) so it is good if we
stick to objective facts.  Perhaps someone could create a matrix so we
compare the issues for the various platforms : IBM, Google Open Meetings,
ClickMeeting, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Citrix Systems,
Inc. and Cisco Systems.  Kindly note that when I started using it zoom was
distributed and free (I have never paid for zoom) and even touted as open
source even though most people would not agree with that claim.   All the
best and thanks in advance to the brilliant person who will create the
matrix.

best

On Mon, Apr 6, 2020 at 2:36 AM Raoul Plommer <plommer at gmail.com> wrote:

> Bruce Schneier isn't exactly flattering them either:
>
> https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/04/security_and_pr_1.html
>
> "That's what we know about Zoom's privacy and security so far. Expect more
> revelations in the weeks and months to come. The New York Attorney General
> is investigating
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/technology/new-york-attorney-general-zoom-privacy.html>
>  the company. Security researchers are combing through the software,
> looking for other things Zoom is doing and not telling anyone about. There
> are more stories waiting to be discovered.
>
> Zoom is a security and privacy disaster
> <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/02/zoom-technology-security-coronavirus-video-conferencing>,
> but until now had managed to avoid public accountability because it was
> relatively obscure. Now that it's in the spotlight, it's all coming out.
> (Their 4/1 response to all of this is here
> <https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/04/01/a-message-to-our-users/>.) On
> 4/2, the company said
> <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/02/zoom-says-engineers-will-focus-on-security-and-safety-issues>
>  it would freeze all feature development and focus on security and
> privacy. Let's see if that's anything more than a PR move.
>
> In the meantime, you should either lock Zoom down as best you can, or --
> better yet -- abandon the platform altogether. Jitsi <https://jitsi.org/> is
> a distributed, free, and open-source alternative. Start your meeting here
> <https://meet.jit.si/>."
>
> -Raoul
>
> On Sun, 5 Apr 2020 at 21:07, Raoul Plommer <plommer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> https://theintercept.com/2020/04/03/zooms-encryption-is-not-suited-for-secrets-and-has-surprising-links-to-china-researchers-discover/
>>
>> " In addition to promptly fixing several security issues that were
>> reported, the company removed an “attendee attention tracker” feature, a
>> privacy nightmare which let meeting hosts track whether participants had
>> the Zoom window — or some other app’s window — in focus during a meeting.
>> It has also invested in new training materials to teach users about the
>> security features like setting passwords on meetings to avoid
>> Zoom-bombing
>> <https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/boston/news/press-releases/fbi-warns-of-teleconferencing-and-online-classroom-hijacking-during-covid-19-pandemic>,
>> the phenomenon where people disrupt unprotected Zoom meetings."
>>
>> I'm glad they're fixing the faults but some of these seem like it's going
>> to take quite a while. I'm no security expert, but some people that I know
>> have been very concerned over these revelations during the past week. If
>> there was no "bashing", they probably wouldn't have treated these issues as
>> priority.
>>
>> -Raoul
>>
>> On Fri, 3 Apr 2020 at 11:48, Carlos Afonso <
>> 0000103799ed46a9-dmarc-request at listserv.syr.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/02/zoom-technology-security-coronavirus-video-conferencing
>>>
>>> frt rgds
>>>
>>> --c.a.
>>>
>>> =====================
>>>
>>> On 27/03/2020 18:53, Raoul Plommer wrote:
>>> > FYI:
>>> >
>>> >
>>> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/27/trolls-zoom-privacy-settings-covid-19-lockdown
>>> >
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Carlos A. Afonso
>>> [emails são pessoais exceto quando explicitamente indicado em contrário]
>>> [emails are personal unless explicitly indicated otherwise]
>>>
>>> Instituto Nupef - https://nupef.org.br
>>> ISOC-BR - https://isoc.org.br
>>>
>>

-- 
Dorothy Gordon
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-discuss/attachments/20200406/f3408cb1/attachment.htm>