Zoom is planning to offer paying users an encrypted version of its video conferencing platform as it seeks to reassure customers that its services can be used to host sensitive discussions.
The US firm has seen its daily userbase swell to the hundreds of millions in light of the pandemic. Its share price has nearly tripled since the start of the year and the company is now valued at more than $50bn.
But the popularity of the platform has also exposed its software to greater scrutiny, in turn revealing a series of security concerns. British security officials have advised those conducting sensitive business in government and parliament to avoid the platform.
Some privacy advocates may baulk at the idea that the encrypted service will only be available to premium users, even if the company does extend the service free of charge to organisations such as schools.
The plans are still subject to change and the company is considering whether to make the service end-to-end encrypted, a form of encryption that means even Zoom cannot intercept the communications sent through its platform.
The former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos, who is now providing consultancy services to Zoom, told Reuters that full encryption for every call would mean the company’s security teams couldn’t enter meetings and tackle abuse in real time, while also preventing users from dialling in by phone.
The company will hope that plans to boost the security of its platform will appeal to employees working in financial services, government and healthcare, three of the key industries it targets and the custodians of some of the most sensitive personal information.
The British government signed a framework agreement with Zoom in April that is worth up to £2m, just weeks before the National Cyber Security Centre warned that the platform should not be used to discuss confidential government business, especially if it could be interpreted as being detrimental to China. The company has faced criticism for routing encryption keys through servers in China, where a significant proportion of its engineering team work. Zoom says it did so accidentally and temporarily after failing to “implement its usual geo-fencing best practices”.
Despite NCSC’s warning, a survey of government departments revealed last month that central government departments have procured 731 Zoom licences since the start of the crisis and the Ministry of Defence has driven most of the procurement.
A Zoom spokesperson told NS Tech: “Zoom’s approach to end-to-end encryption is very much a work in progress – everything from our draft cryptographic design, which was just published last week, to our continued discussions around which customers it would apply to.”
Government struck Zoom deal just weeks before NCSC warned of security risks
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