Zoom plans to offer end-to-end encryption to free, paying customers

The company will also be using AES 256 GCM transport encryption as its default, which it describes as "one of the strongest encryption standards in use today"

Zoom on Wednesday announced its offer allowing users of its videoconferencing software to enable end-to-end encryption of calls starting with beta next month.
The feature will be coming for both, paid as well to free users, and will be a toggle switch any call admin can turn on or disable, in the event, they want to allow traditional phone lines or older conference room phones to join, reported The Verge.

"To make this possible, Free/Basic users seeking access to E2EE will participate in a one-time process that will prompt the user for additional pieces of information, such as verifying a phone number via a text message," The Verge quoted the company's blog post as saying in line to prevent the app from using for any unlawful activity.

"Many leading companies perform similar steps on account creation to reduce the mass creation of abusive accounts. We are confident that by implementing risk-based authentication, in combination with our current mix of tools -- including our Report a User function -- we can continue to prevent and fight abuse," the post further read.

The company will also be using AES 256 GCM transport encryption as its default, which it describes as "one of the strongest encryption standards in use today."

However, it's not clear when the feature will launch, but the beta is arriving in July and Zoom intends to have some level of permissions, so thataccount administrators can disable or enable it at the account or group level.

Video meeting app Zoom ties up with Oracle Cloud to cater to growing demand

Oracle says its cloud infrastructure will help Zoom to continue to deliver flawless service to its customer base.

Cloud major Oracle on Tuesday announced that the video meet app Zoom is turning to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to support its growth and evolving business needs.

Zoom has grown exponentially in recent times due to Covid-19 pandemic. The company said it now connects around 300 million-plus user on daily basis.

“We recently experienced the most significant growth our business has ever seen, requiring massive increases in our service capacity.

We explored multiple platforms, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure was instrumental in helping us quickly scale our capacity and meet the needs of our new users,” Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan said in a statement.

Zoom is already transferring upwards of seven petabytes data through Oracle Cloud Infrastructure servers each day, roughly equivalent to 93 years of HD video.

Within hours of deployment, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure supported hundreds of thousands of concurrent Zoom meeting participants.

After achieving full production, Zoom is now enabling millions of simultaneous meeting participants on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Oracle said that its cloud infrastructure will help Zoom to continue to deliver flawless service to its customer base, adapt to changing demands, and lead the video communications industry.

“Video communications has become an essential part of our professional and personal lives, and Zoom has led this industry's innovation,” said Oracle CEO Safra Catz.

Whatsapp monitoring: FB moots 'prospective' solution, fails to appease govt

The issue of traceability has been a flashpoint between the government and WhatsApp.

Facebook global executive Nick Clegg has proposed a "prospective" mechanism for WhatsApp to act on cases flagged by law enforcement agencies, but the government has refused to budge on its demand for traceability of messages.

The issue of traceability has been a flashpoint between the government and WhatsApp, and the Facebook-owned messaging platform has so far resisted India's demand for identification of message originators, arguing that doing so would undermine its policy on privacy and end-to-end encryption.

A senior government official told PTI that Facebook Vice-President, Global Affairs and Communications, Nick Clegg, during his meeting with IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad last week mooted alternatives to absolute traceability of messages, including use of 'meta data' and machine intelligence for dealing with the issue, even offering to harness WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook linkages to provide assistance to law enforcement agencies.

When contacted, a Facebook spokesperson said: "Facebook cares deeply about the safety of people in India and Nick's meetings this week provided opportunities to discuss our commitment to supporting privacy and security in every app we provide and how we can continue to work productively with the Government of India towards these shared goals."

A person aware of WhatsApps's position on the matter emphasised that the platform cannot read messages exchanged as they are encrypted.

It is learnt that Clegg in meetings with top authorities, including Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval as well as IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on September 12, reiterated the US tech giant's stance that it will abide by any lawful request for information by the Indian government, but it cannot read messages exchanged on its platforms.

Clegg told the officials that the company can provide 'signals' and meta data such as who calls were made to and duration, among others, of lawfully identified users, a source said.

Business Standard

Microsoft rolls out end-to-end encryption option for Skype: Report

The new encryption feature could be activated from a "New Private Conversation" option that is now part of the "Compose" menu or from the recipient's profile.

Microsoft has reportedly rolled out end-to-end encryption for private conversations on Skype that would ensure that the chat content between two people is hidden in both, the chat list and the notifications.

This feature comes after months of testing and is now available for all users on Skype iOS, Android, Linux, Mac and Windows, tech website MSPoweruser.com reported late on Monday.

Microsoft is yet to confirm the development.

The new encryption feature could be activated from a "New Private Conversation" option that is now part of the "Compose" menu or from the recipient's profile.

Users could participate in only one private conversation from a single device at a time and on switching the conversation to other devices, the messages they send and receive would be tied to the device they would be using at the time, the report added.

In January, Microsoft said they would offer the encryption feature for audio calls, text messaging and image, audio and video file transmissions.

Except for making the communication channel secure, end-to-end encryption also ensures that messages stored on servers could only be read by those involved in the communications.

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