Ever wondered how data gets leaked to dark web and what happens after it does?
Hackers are always looking for data leaks VIA some back doors, loopholes or weak points in the system to get hands on any kind of information. By using techniques like
- Malwares
- Phishing
- Spoofing
- DDoS
To name a few.
This information is then sold on the dark web which may include
- Your name
- Your phone number
- Your email
- Your address
- Credit card number
- Social security number
- Your pictures
Etc.
Which can further be used for fraud and identity theft.
With the rise in technology, with now almost everyone shifting towards digital data. Whether it is economic transactions or your cheap assignment writing services UK; there is no surprise that cyber threats have increased drastically. And with almost all of our data now saved digitally, it is of utmost importance to keep them safe.
According to ‘Cybin Solutions’ approximately $6 trillion is expected to be spent in year 2021 globally, on cybersecurity. with the Dow Jones today looking into listing a few cyber-stocks in its listing.
Non-compliant and weak security measures are the main reasons because of which ‘Zoom’ experienced it’s fall from grace.
How, you ask?
Let’s find out.
What is zoom and why did it become so popular?
Zoom is a video hosting site that provided cloud platform for video and audio calling, conferences, webinars, meeting etc and is supported on almost every device e.g. smartphones, laptops, PCs etc.
Zoom experienced boom when the organizations, companies and offices switched to work from home due to the ragging novel corona virus pandemic.
Being
- Easy to use
- Having interactive user interface
- Not requiring signing up or logging in any where
- The free version supporting 100 attendees for almost 40 minutes
Were some of the features that the world had never seen before. Especially the ability to connect 100 attendees in a single call, a feature not provided by any video hosting platform distinguished it from others.
As this allowed
- Large office meetings
- Lectures and classes
- Congregational events
- Social events
- Government meetings, UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson used zoom rooms for UK cabinet meetings.
To take place without any kind of hinderance.
The impact it had on global market
These novel features in a video hosting platform and the demand of time, skyrocketed zoom’s reputation and clientele base.
Over a period of just months zoom’s revenue increased almost 85%, raiding it’s market value to an astounding $42 billion. This also boosted its founder’s, Eric Yuan’s, net worth more than $4 billion, to an aggregate of $7.9 billion
The company made its way into 2 of the renowned stock exchanges of the world
- NASDAQ (national association of securities dealers automated quotations), a stock market that ranks 2nd in the list of stock exchanges by market capitalization.
- FTSE 100 boardroom (financial times stock exchange) 100 index, which is a shares index of top 100 companies of London stock exchange in terms of market capitalization.
Currently zoom has almost 300 million daily active users, more than any other video hosting platform. And it rules the competition of being the most preferred video hosting platform in the world.
Controversies over security
The sudden and exponential boom of zoom did expose a lot of security flaws and issues in the software. Issues that were related to leaking of data and information, security breaches and its vulnerability.
Even the CEO and founder of zoom, Eric Yuan, admitted the company’s shortcomings and stated that they ‘moved too fast and made mis-steps’ in an interview with CNN.
One of the major problems was of ‘Zoom Bombing’, as zoom ID codes are easy to guess, random people could barge in and disturb the meeting like shouting, sharing of obscenities and profanities.
Another major problem was that as zoom calls were not end-to-end encrypted, hackers could get information about email IDs of people, their pictures and videos, the data being shared in-between the meeting.
Moreover, attackers could modify installer without anyone noticing, which allowed them to easily gather personal information about the users.
The thing that caused the biggest outcry was ‘Business Insider’s’ report that stated that over half a million zoom accounts were available on dark web and costed about less than a cent each.
How did the world react?
- Companies and private organizations that banned zoom
SpaceX, who’s CEO is Elon Musk, was one of the first countries to ban zoom, due to security and privacy concerns for the company
Google also banned all its employees from using zoom, moreover, they made their premium version of ‘Google Meet’ free, which had the ability to support almost 250 people simultaneously in a single call.
Standard Chartered was the first major bank that notifies its employees to discontinue zoom.
- Government organizations that banned zoom
NASA banned all its employees from using zoom services.
Singapore discontinued zoom from all of its schools and colleges after lectures started to get ‘zoom bombed’.
Similarly, New York City stopped usage of zoom in all of the classroom citing security concerns.
German Foreign Ministry limited the usage of zoom in only emergency situations and that too only on personal computers, not the official ones.
Taiwan was the first country to ban zoom in all of its government organizations.
Australian Defence Force were forced to shut down zoom after an Australian comedian ‘zoom bombed’ one of the meetings.
Similarly, many other companies and organizations have banned zoom for internal usage and in some cases, completely.
How has zoom responded to it?
Zoom responded with some immediate patching,where some updates will be launched that would deal with major problems of zoom bombing, by enabling passwords for each room. Room ID to be shared with specific people and room admin having administrative power of the room.
Secondly it vowed on increasing security aspects of the software by incorporating encryption and other safety measures.
Author Bio
Adam Sheen has a PhD in accounting and finance from University of Sheffield. His expertise lies in writing for topics related to finance and management. And have an astounding 10 years’ worth of experience.
