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posted by janrinok on Thursday May 07 2020, @10:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the all-your-keybase-are-belong-to-us dept.

Zoom Acquires Keybase to Bring End-to-End Encryption to Video Platform:

Popular communications platform provider Zoom Video announced on Thursday that it has acquired secure messaging and file-sharing service Keybase for an undisclosed sum. The move is the latest by the company as it attempts to bolster the security of its offerings and build in end-to-end encryption that can scale to the company's massive user base.

"There are en-to-end encrypted communications platforms. There are communications platforms with easily deployable security. There are enterprise-scale communications platforms. We believe that no current platform offers all of these. This is what Zoom plans to build, giving our users security, ease of use, and scale, all at once," Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, said in a statement.

Zoom said it would offer an end-to-end encrypted meeting mode to all paid accounts.

[...] "This acquisition marks a key step for Zoom as we attempt to accomplish the creation of a truly private video communications platform that can scale to hundreds of millions of participants, while also having the flexibility to support Zoom's wide variety of uses," Yuan wrote in a blog post. "Our goal is to provide the most privacy possible for every use case, while also balancing the needs of our users and our commitment to preventing harmful behavior on our platform. Keybase's experienced team will be a critical part of this mission."

Details on Zoom's encryption roadmap are available on the Zoom blog.

Previously:
(2020-04-21) This Open-Source Program Deepfakes You During Zoom Meetings, in Real Time
(2020-04-20) Every Security Issue Uncovered so far in the Zoom Video Chat App
(2020-04-17) Looking for Alternative, Self-Hosted Audio (or Video) Chat Services
(2020-04-15) Over 500,000 Zoom Accounts Sold on Hacker Forums, the Dark Web
(2020-04-13) Zoom Admits Data Got Routed Through China

Also at TechCrunch and The Verge.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Friday May 08 2020, @07:53AM (5 children)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Friday May 08 2020, @07:53AM (#991594) Journal

    Zoom is very very easy.
    it 'just works'. Grandparents, 7 year olds, anyone can just make it work.
    The web ("online") version is basically the same as the application (minus a few options around meeting controls)

    Skype for business isn't cheap. Skype is okay, but clunky. MS Teams/Lync is very good, but overkill for most people.

    40 minutes free for .. free is pretty good and completely enough for most people.

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
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  • (Score: 2) by turgid on Friday May 08 2020, @10:15AM

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 08 2020, @10:15AM (#991609) Journal

    I've never done videoconferencing before, until the lockdown (newfangled nonsense) but I've been using Jitsi [jitsi.org]. It's FOSS, you can run your own sever if you want to, and it's easy to use: this link starts a meeting instantly [meet.jit.si].

    Why Zoom? Well, it has a groovy name and it's payware (people like payware - "it must be good") but they let you have a few minutes free.

    I've been using Jitsi at home and at work.

  • (Score: 2) by corey on Friday May 08 2020, @11:33PM (3 children)

    by corey (2202) on Friday May 08 2020, @11:33PM (#991879)

    Wife was saying that it has a feature where the host can break groups of participants out into isolated groups and then join then all back up, like a lot of training sessions. This is a useful feature in business, and AFAIK is not present in any other client.

    I really dislike zoom though and have refused to use it at work.

    • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday May 08 2020, @11:39PM (2 children)

      by MostCynical (2589) on Friday May 08 2020, @11:39PM (#991882) Journal

      also possible in teams, which is geared to online learning groups.

      if you have refused to use it, do they just not invite you to meetings, or are you senior enough that they use something else to talk to you?

      --
      "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
      • (Score: 2) by corey on Saturday May 09 2020, @03:01AM (1 child)

        by corey (2202) on Saturday May 09 2020, @03:01AM (#991942)

        Bit of both. We normally use Cisco WebEx but there have been a couple of roadshows from the CEO in zoom, didn't attend those. I also have lobbied IT to refuse it, I think my knowledge of crypto and security is greater than theirs.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2020, @03:27AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2020, @03:27AM (#992232)

          No, their understanding of who writes their checks or can make their life hell is better than yours. If the CEO tells IT they want to do something and IT tells them "no," then they better have a reason the CEO can understand and accept. Otherwise, they are getting in the way of the perceived profit centers for no good reason. And people who get in the way of profit for no good reason are liabilities, not assets. And in business, a liability gets dealt with, which means they get fired, or worse. And people who get fired or worse either don't get their checks or have their life made hell.