During a live YouTube stream on Wednesday, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan apologized to users for a series of security vulnerabilities that have turned the app on its head in recent weeks. Talk to viewers for more than two hours, Yuan praised the company’s recent privacy updates and promised to take any errors seriously.
“It is clear that we need to do a lot of work to ensure the safety of all these new consumer use cases,” Yuan said during the call. “But what I can promise you is that we take these issues very, very seriously. We look at them all. When we find a problem, we acknowledge it and fix it. “
The live chat follows similar interviews with CNN and The Wall Street Journalwhile Zoom is rushing to adapt to his new consumer audience. As part of that new focus, Zoom has also instituted a 90-day freeze of scheduled functions, leaving staff to work alone on troubleshooting their current product. Earlier this week, the company made a series of changes to avoid zoom bombing and other harassment of the service.
Yuan also specifically focused on a Citizen Lab report published last week that showed encryption keys are processed through a server in China even if all meeting participants were outside the country. According to Yuan, communication happened as a result of client applications attempting to contact a timing server, but he said this happened in a vanishingly small percentage of cases. Still, the mere possibility of such communication could open the door to bad actors, making it a significant vulnerability to the service.
“To be clear, this should never have happened,” said Yuan, “and the problem was completely addressed last Friday.”
Zoom also helps manage its new security and privacy challenges. This morning, former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos announced that he would work with the company on his security work, although he will not be an employee or executive at Zoom.
“In a time of global crisis, Zoom has become a crucial link between colleagues, families, friends and especially between teachers and students,” Stamos said in a medium post. ‘[That] has created privacy, trust and security challenges that no company has ever faced. ”
Zoom is also facing new levels of research by US lawmakers and regulators. In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission Earlier today, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) called on the agency to “issue comprehensive guidelines for companies offering online conference services, as well as best practices for users who will help protect online security and privacy during this pandemic and beyond. Such guidance would impact not only Zoom, but also competitors such as Skype and Google Hangouts, opening the door for new regulatory measures in space.