Video conferencing tools are booming - including zoom. But now there is bad news for the users of the service. You should take care of their passwords.
- The video conference service Zoom is making negative headlines once again.
- Criminals have apparently captured hundreds of thousands of user records - and are offering them for sale.
- Whether the exit restrictions and contact bans in Germany should be relaxed is still the subject of debate.
Update of May 24, 2020: The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber warns against the use of the popular just in the corona crisis videoconferencing provider Zoom . "There is currently no end-to-end encryption. This means that the content of the communication is unencrypted on the provider's server," Kelber told the Handelsblatt . "This form of communication is therefore not advisable if personal data is involved. Alternative platforms should then be chosen where real end-to-end encryption is guaranteed."
Kelber, in his own words, takes a critical view in this context that applications such as zoom are often used in the home office or during home schooling as a result of the corona crisis . "It is important to use such technical solutions without endangering data security or data protection," he told the newspaper. But there are more privacy-friendly products.
"For convenience, unfortunately, the known offers are often used, even if they are deficient from a data protection perspective," said Kelber. "I expect authorities and large companies, but also citizens, to take a close look at what they choose." There is always an alternative "that ensures the confidentiality of communication and the use of which you do not pay for with your data or metadata".
In the middle of the corona crisis: Warning for users of a popular video chat provider
Munich - Who can not feel, want to see - something like the changed communication behavior could be many people in the Corona crisis describe: In place of common pubs evenings, café visits, but also corporate conferences are video chats entered. And one of the big profiteers is called " Zoom ".
Corona crisis: video chat service Zoom is booming - criminals are striking
The video conferencing service has recently gained a lot of users. The daily number of users jumped from ten million in December to 200 million recently. But now there is bad news for them.
As reported by the portal heise.de , an IT security company claims to have discovered several hundred thousand data sets of zoom users in the Darknet - there are talk of over 500,000. They are apparently offered for sale by criminals - in some cases, user data has even been put online for free, it is said.
Video service Zoom: Apparently, user passwords can be bought on the Darknet
The case could be very uncomfortable for those affected: According to the report, the data include the email address and the user password in plain text . It is therefore advisable to change passwords now, not only for zoom, but also for other uses.
The video conferencing service "Zoom" is extremely popular in the corona crisis - but there are security problems.
© AFP / OLIVIER DOULIERY
The company Cyble raised the alarm in a conversation with the US website Bleeping Computer . The IT experts even claim to have bought a good 530,000 data sets from zoom users in order to validate the authenticity of the offer. The price for this sounds manageable: There is talk of 0.002 US cents per data record.
Coronavirus crisis: zoom is targeted by criminals
It is still unclear how the sensitive data could be captured. Zoom has so far not disclosed any information about a possible data leak - apparently , a corresponding request from heise.de was initially not answered. However, an attack using "credential stuffing" is more likely anyway, the website speculates. Passwords already known from other leaks are tried out by criminals in order to obtain further data.
In any case, it is not the first security problem for Zoom. Google, for example, blocks the software of the video conferencing service Zoom on the computers of its employees. The desktop program does not meet Google's security requirements, a spokesman said. The widespread use - and the increased attention of IT experts - had exposed numerous security gaps and data protection problems.
We keep you up to date on the status of the coronavirus crisis in the USA in our news ticker. For the latest news on the impact of the pandemic on the economy, see this article.
fn (with material from dpa)
Rubric list image: © dpa / Jamie Lee Finch
