[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] "Blessing or nightmare." The video conferencing platform Zoom, which thrived amid the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), has been caught in a backlash due to its rapid growth in a short period.
Just a few months after coining new terms like Zoomer and Zoom University and gaining attention as a new social phenomenon, cybersecurity issues have emerged. Hackers have been intruding unauthorizedly into video classes and playing pornographic videos, a phenomenon called 'Zoom bombing,' occurring in various places, prompting even the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to warn about Zoom's security. Security experts are also increasingly voicing concerns, urging people "not to use Zoom."
◆Rapid increase in users due to remote work and lectures... stock price soars=Zoom Video Communications, which was listed on Nasdaq last year, is considered a representative winner benefiting from COVID-19 as remote work and lectures have spread recently. Zoom, which allows up to 100 people to participate in a video conference simultaneously, played a key role in spreading the untact culture, from meetings of employees working from home to online classes, gatherings with acquaintances, and blind dates. Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister and the first world leader confirmed with COVID-19, even personally verified using Zoom during a cabinet meeting.
Zoom's explosive popularity is also confirmed by user data. JP Morgan estimated that Zoom's daily active users increased by 340% compared to the end of last year. According to Apptopia, as of mid-last month, the number of Zoom application downloads reached 2.13 million. This is a sharp surge in demand from just 56,000 downloads two months ago. Zoom's stock price, which was around $60 per share at the beginning of the year, soared to about $160 recently before closing at $146.12 on the 31st (local time). Its market capitalization expanded to about $41 billion. This is a rare upward trend in the global stock market hit hard by COVID-19.
Especially, the growth of Zoom, a 9-year-old startup, stands out even among IT giants like Facebook, Google, and Netflix, whose social networking services (SNS) and streaming service users surged after the spread of COVID-19. At the time of its listing last year, CEO Eric Yuan declared, "The future of communication will be video," which has been realized faster than expected due to the unforeseen COVID-19 situation.
Major foreign media cite Zoom's ease of use, even for first-time users, as the reason it has become synonymous with video conferencing, surpassing similar platforms like Microsoft (MS) Teams and Slack. Zoom offers unlimited 1-on-1 meetings and free meetings up to 40 minutes for three or more participants. The free version allows up to 100 participants at once, double the capacity of Skype (50 people). Users can send one-on-one messages to specific users or record sessions.
A scene of conducting a video conference through the video conferencing platform Zoom [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]
◆Repeated Zoom bombings... attacks with obscene materials, hateful videos, discriminatory remarks=However, controversies have followed the rapid growth achieved in a short period. Zoom has become a major target of cyberattacks such as 'Zoom bombing,' and lawsuits have been filed over personal information issues. The neologism Zoom bombing refers to a type of trolling that disrupts Zoom video conferences or classes with malicious intent by sharing obscene or hateful videos through the screen sharing function.
The FBI Boston division stated on the 30th of last month, "We have received multiple reports of Zoom video conferences being interrupted by obscene or hateful videos," and advised users to pay attention to cybersecurity. This includes not only the distribution of obscene videos and photos but also racist and sexist remarks.
Recently, a video class at a high school in Massachusetts was interrupted after an unidentified user hurled insults and shouted the teacher's home address, according to the FBI. In another high school in California, multiple external users connected and displayed obscene images on the central screen.
The number of domains named after Zoom has also surged in recent weeks. Many of these are suspected to be domains intended for cyberattacks. Major foreign media have evaluated that with Zoom's popularity rising due to COVID-19, it has become the most targeted platform by cybercriminals. Experts in Silicon Valley have also criticized Zoom, urging people not to use it. Security researcher Jonathan Leitschuh pointed out that even before Zoom gained attention, he discovered a serious bug in the platform that could hack users' webcam devices.
Amid these ongoing controversies, Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York, also expressed concerns in a letter that Zoom's security measures are insufficient considering the recent increase in usage due to COVID-19. The letter, reported by The New York Times (NYT), evaluated Zoom as an "essential and valuable communication platform" but pointed out vulnerabilities and security flaws that allow malicious third parties to access video calls.
Earlier, personal information leakage controversies involving IT giants like Facebook have escalated into legal battles. According to Bloomberg News, a user filed a lawsuit on the 30th of last month at the federal court in San Jose, California, where Zoom's headquarters are located. This followed an experiment by Motherboard on the 26th of the same month, which confirmed an error where personal information of users accessing Zoom on iPhones was transmitted to Facebook without consent. In response, Zoom released an update the next day to fix the issue, but concerns over personal information leakage remain, raising the possibility of multiple lawsuits.
Zoom stated in an email, "We take users' privacy, security, and trust very seriously," and "We are operating 24/7 to ensure that hospitals, schools, and businesses worldwide can stay connected and operational during the COVID-19 pandemic."
For Zoom, which has been spotlighted due to COVID-19, resolving security and personal information issues while managing traffic stably has become the biggest challenge. However, this is also considered a difficult task for IT giants like Facebook and MS. It remains to be seen how many users will remain after the COVID-19 crisis ends.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
