Since the Coronavirus crisis started, ZOOM has been one of the biggest beneficiaries in the tech space, with the company growing from 10 million users to 200 million users in less than 3 months.
The exponential growth has come with challenges, the biggest of which has evolved into security. A number of concerns have been raised regarding the privacy (or lack thereof) and the Taiwanese government has become the first government to declare a government-wide ban of the application.
The Executive Yuan’s Department of Cyber Security (DCS) today formally issued an advisory to all government organizations and specific non-government agencies that should it become operationally necessary to engage in video conferencing, the underlying video software to be used should not have associated security or privacy concerns, such as the Zoom video communication service.
…if the organization must use non-domestically produced software for international exchanges or some other special situation, many global and communication giants—like Google and Microsoft—are offering such technology for free amid the current pandemic. Organizations should consider these options after evaluating any associated data security risks.
Taiwanese Government Communication
The endorsement of Zoom’s competitors will also come as a significant blow because before the security issues were unearthed, a lot of users probably would’ve avoided Microsoft and Google’s offerings simply because those tech giants don’t have the best reputation – Google more so than Microsoft.
Zoom’s CEO gave an update earlier this month saying the company would patch out all the security issues they are currently facing but my only fear with that is the company may not be able to shake off its new reputation. Changing perception is very difficult and it will be interesting to see how the 200 million daily meeting participants evolves in the wake of Zoom’s security faux pas.
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