Are you using Zoom yet? We’re sharing its security vulnerability and why you might consider switching to Google Meet for your business.
With Zoom’s popularity exploding in the last couple of months, more than a dozen security issues have been reported. We’ve heard a lot of horror stories involving zoom bombings. Its ease of use has made it easy for troublemakers outside the organisation to jump in meetings. IT security professionals even say that Zoom’s security has left a lot of holes open. They quickly patch them up but still, new issues continue to appear.
If this is not concerning enough, how can you be sure that your business meetings are secured?
Overall, we still trust Google at the end of the day with its teams of security experts, and being one of the most secure cloud infrastructures in the world, you can be sure that your meetings and recordings are safe.
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Transcription:
What’s up guys, Pete Moriarty here. I am covering some of Zoom security exploits, what they mean for you, and if you are a small business owner, and you’re currently using Zoom, why you might consider using Google Meet instead. Now, a pretty interesting article came out with CNET that was passed on to me, which is basically a list of every single Zoom security vulnerability since basically the beginning of time, which is pretty damn crazy. And not the beginning of time, beginning of time. I mean since the last few weeks and month of Zoom bursting into the popularity, 20Xing their business, and everyone’s seemingly using Zoom for working at home. So, I want to kind of cover off what some of these are, which ones you need to be concerned about. And of course, look, we’re a Google company. I’m not trying to anti-Zoom you here, but I want to share why you might consider switching to Google Meet for your organization instead of Zoom, because there are some serious concerns there.
Now, Zoom got really popular, not only because it is great to use for it’s amazing gallery view and everyone seeing each other at the same time, but they really nailed setting up simple meetings for businesses and for personal use as well. They’ve got URL-based meeting sharing, which means that you can just share that URL, and anyone can basically jump on that and jump straight in. Super convenient. There aren’t really any logins needed. You just, “Boom,” it’s open, and then you’re good to go. There is a small download required from the browser onto your computer, so that’s one small thing that you got to get set up. But apart from that, Zoom’s pretty darn convenient.
They’ve also got a number of really useful tools, which make it easy for business owners. Like screen-sharing, being able to record. There’s some other features in the pro version, like things like breakout rooms and being able to run webinars as well, as you pay for more and more on their different plans. Zoom got really popular because, well, it was platform agnostic. It works across different devices, works on the mobile as well. And for the most part, apart from what used to be a 45 minute limit on free meetings, it was pretty darn easy for anyone to jump in and hold video meetings, no matter what platform you’re using inside your business, and no matter what devices you’re using. Now, one of the reasons that Google Meet really missed the boat with catching up to Zoom, and Zoom have really taken off, is Google have been dogged by the ghost of Google Hangouts.
They originally had poor quality, everything was running in the browser, so they didn’t quite have the same compression available for Skype, or other desktop based-apps that were able to crunch the video a little bit better. So, Hangouts got this reputation of being slow, or not great quality, and the interface wasn’t really that nice as well. They used to have a clunky system of having to dial, instead of just being able to join a persistent meeting room, and that really made things challenging. So, Zoom took off where Hangouts has lagged behind. Now, Google had been building it out in the background. You’ve got things like URL-based sharing, you’ve got recording, you’ve got the ability to have multiple views with everyone on the same screen at the same time, but Google haven’t really reached that level of popularity for everyone like Zoom has.
So, unfortunately, Google have been still a little bit left behind in the meeting space, and even though they’re getting millions and millions of people signing up to Google Meet and using it more and more within the Google Suite ecosystem, well, it’s not quite got the mainstream popularity that Zoom has. Issues with Zoom first started popping up when people were “Zoom bombing.” Now, what does Zoom bombing mean? Well, Zoom bombing actually means that you’re jumping into a random Zoom room, and actually busting in on someone’s meeting. Now, there’s a key difference between how Google handles this, and Zoom handles this. Basically, if you’ve got the code with Zoom, anyone can jump in, and no one has to allow you into a meeting. It makes it really convenient, but the downside is, if someone guesses your room code, then they can jump straight into a meeting.
Now, with Google Meet, Google actually have to allow each person to join a meeting, unless they’re within your company, or unless they have been specifically invited to the meeting. One of the great things about Google is, when you invite someone via Google Calendar invite, they’re automatically authorized to join the meeting. So, in a business setting, you’re probably going to be scheduling meetings via your calendar, and that works beautifully. Even if you share the URL with someone outside your company, and you want to have them join a Google Meet, well, then you have the little pop up that shows up saying someone outside the meeting is trying to join, and you can choose to admit them, or deny them. Now, Zoom never built in this feature by default, and never had it switched on. Now ,they have since switched on their “waiting room” feature. But, unfortunately, the damage was already done. People all over the world who haven’t switched that feature on, have had people jump into their Zoom meetings.
Sometimes schools, sometimes corporate meetings, and it’s either been someone outside the company who shouldn’t be listening to that corporate information, or in the worst cases, people have been showing porn to kids who are in high school or primary school even, when teachers are trying to teach. You can imagine, it’s a complete mess in the Zoom world right now. Now, next up outside of the Zoom bombing, there are a list of other security vulnerables that have come up, and become a part of Zoom. Unfortunately, some of these are super serious. Now, one of the most serious ones is, half a million accounts have actually been exposed somehow because Zoom’s systems weren’t secure enough. Someone has actually been able to get access to all of those accounts, and actually share them on the dark web. That’s one of the scariest ones. After that happened, Zoom even admitted that there were security issues with their recordings and how they store them.
So, after recording was stored, it actually was able to be viewed, and left still available on the web. So, once people had recorded a meeting, someone could try and guess that code, and people could actually download other people’s recordings. Super, super scary stuff. Now, as this was happening, the Zoom CEO basically apologized, and apologized, and there’s been multiple apologies that have been sent out, and each time they’ve responded and reacted. But, honestly, that just makes me uncomfortable, that there has to be an issue before someone responds and reacts. All of this has just been mounting, and mounting for Zoom, as the lens is focused more, and more clearly on them and their security vulnerabilities. Now, the next one that’s super scary is, someone actually created an automated tool to find Zoom meetings, and that really just exposes how much of a problem these Zoom bombings are.
Zoom have basically allowed their meetings that don’t let people enter a waiting room, to just be open to the world. So, what that means, is that anyone who runs a tool like this, you can see that it actually discovers about a hundred active meetings per hour, that you can go ahead and Zoom bomb if you wanted to, and that’s pretty darn scary stuff. Now, if that’s not concerning enough, even in Zoom’s response to the claims and the criticisms around their encryption levels, and how secure they’re actually making sure these meetings are, actually admitted that they weren’t even protecting their meetings with the level of encryption that they had promised. So, it’s really concerning how many security vulnerabilities, but also just how lax they’ve been as a business, in actually making sure that their video conferencing product is secure, which they’ve promised from day one.
So, what’s been Zoom’s response to all of this? Well, the CEO has had to apologize publicly a number of times, and they’ve added a new security committee inside the business, they’ve brought on external security consultants, and they’ve been doing a pretty good job at squashing all of the bugs as these have been coming up. Overall, I’m a bit uncomfortable using or recommending Zoom at all, based on everything that’s come out. Reading through this article made me quite uncomfortable about the meetings that I’ve had on Zoom and what I’ve recorded ,and whether or not anyone might accidentally stumble across those. Most of all, I’m concerned about businesses in general, and choosing what tools they use. If someone’s fearful about their calls being recorded, or being viewed by someone else, then you may not be able to actually be productive with your team in getting your work done.
So, overall, Zoom’s response has been good, but a little bit of it was too little, too late. You’ve already had companies all over the world, banning the use of Zoom. SpaceX, Microsoft, Google, there are a couple of obvious ones. The U.S. Pentagon, the U.S. Senate, have all banned the use of Zoom, because they’ve said, “This is not up to scratch on security standards, so it can’t be used anymore.” The Singapore schooling system basically said, “No, this is not going to be used anywhere,” and districts all over the U.S. are beginning to bring in Zoom bans. So, this is really becoming a bit of an issue. If these security teams have actually reviewed the software, and said, “Nope, this is not up to scratch,” then it’s actually something worthwhile listening to. Am I worried about some of the smaller complaints, like Zoom routing traffic through a couple of servers in China?
Not really. I mean, I try and stay away from the anti-China propaganda, but Zoom still, if they said, “No, our traffic doesn’t go through China,” but it actually was going through China, well, you have to start to worry if you can actually trust their word. They already had issues with what they said was their encryption level being different to what was actually being delivered, and so I just have these issues that are mounting for me around Zoom, and whether or not you can trust them as a company. Overall, at the end of the day, I trust Google much more than Zoom, knowing that they have teams, and teams, and teams of security experts. And the whole of the G Suite ecosystem is locked down and secured with all of Google’s end-to-end encryption between your device browser, between Google servers, and between every device that you’re using. Especially if you’re using your mobile device to connect into meetings via the app.
What that means is, not only are you protected when you’re in a meeting, but even things like the meeting recordings going into Google Drive, have all of the security and safety of Google Drive. Your Google account, if you’ve enabled two-factor authentication is locked down only to you, and it is verified that nobody else can access any of those files. Google, being one of the most secure clouds in the world means, that you can trust them a lot more than a private company with dubious ties to different areas in the world. We originally used Zoom because the gallery view was awesome to see everyone at the same time. Sharing a meeting via a URL made it really easy to meet either internally or externally with a customer, and Google’s Meet required Chrome, and was the “Google way” of doing meetings.
Now, Google are announcing that they’re adding the gallery view into Google Meet. You can already get it through a Chrome plugin right now. There’s also other features, like being able to dial in, and the enterprise recording where you can record a meeting, and have it automatically go into your Google Drive. That’s been made available for everyone. That makes using Google Meet so much more convenient than firing up a third-party app in Zoom. Google also announced recently that Google Meet now works in Safari, as well. So, you don’t have to worry about browser compatibility. Anyone you share a Google Meet login with, sharing the URL, means that they’ll be able to jump straight in and join your meeting. Without any downloads, without third-party software, and of course, without compromising your other party’s security. If you’re interested in more videos on Google Meet and how to use it, well, go ahead and check them out below.
We’ve got different videos on our channel on how to use the recording feature, why you might choose Meet over Zoom, and also how to set up the Gallery View plugin, so you can get access to that sweet, sweet Brady Bunch view, where you can see everyone at the same time. Now, if you’re already a G Suite user, and you’re interested in having a chat to our team about how we can support your setup, help you get more out of the platform, or anything to do with supporting your G Suite implementation, head along to itgenius.com and check out our concierge service. It’s a premium support service exclusively for customers who are already subscribed to G Suite. Now, if you’re a business owner, and you’re not yet using the Google ecosystem for your business, well, you don’t have to switch everything out of the Microsoft world and into Google. We can get you access to Google Meet. If you’re interested in that, please head along to our team’s website, have a chat to us, and let them know that you’re interested in Google Meet for your meetings. We’ll take you through all of the security and safety features of Google Meet, show you how to use it, and even let your team get your hands on it as well. Till next time, we’ll chat to you soon. Cheers.
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