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When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt in March 2020, businesses and schools bounced back first and foremost in online meetings and remote learning. Most of these meetings were held at Zoom, a virtual meeting forum, and a video conferencing site.

 

Although things at first seemed fine, several security challenges with Zoom began to emerge that concerned both business and individual users. In this article, I will discuss the most common security issues with Zoom and some tips regarding Zoom security.

 

Zoom-Bombing:

Increased remote working environment and dependency on Zoom have led to a wave of mischief-makers falling into unsafe Zoom meetings to play offensive content, such as pornography, through Zoom’s screen-sharing feature. They are often sexually abusive and threatening to reach participants using vulgar or racist words. These acts, termed “Zoom-bombing,” have gradually increased in the last few months.

 

On March 30, the FBI issued a warning after receiving several reports of the Zoom-bombers being attacked. The Agency issued its own collection of protective measures to defend against zoom-bombing, a page for reporting teleconference hijacking incidents, and a page for reporting unique threats received during one of these incidents.

 

Zoom is not end-to-end encrypted:

Another issue is that Zoom is a relatively young company founded in 2011 that has experienced some increasing stress related to security. In March 2020, the company was widely criticised for a controversial claim that it supported end-to-end videoconference encryption. As is widely used the term refers to the sharing of encrypted content between two end-users in such a way that it cannot be decrypted when in transit, not even by the organisation controlling the servers through which it passes. For example, as Apple explains concerning iMessage and FaceTime, “there is no way for Apple to decrypt the content of your conversations when they’re in transit between devices.”

 

The Zoom approach was different. According to the March article in The Intercept, Zoom was simply using transport encryption, which is different from end-to-end encryption, since the Zoom service itself would access the unencrypted video and audio content of the Zoom meetings. So, video and audio content will remain private from someone spying on your Wi-Fi when you have a Zoom meeting, but it will not stay private from the company. While Zoom subsequently revealed that it was working on new software that would allow it to implement end-to-end encryption, the fact that uncertainty has occurred at all on this point is security related.

 

Zoom’s Vulnerabilities:

Three days after the investigation by the Motherboard found that the iOS app from Zoom was sending analytics data to Facebook, Zoombombers targeted business meetings and raunchy email, audio, and images in classrooms. These journeys were only the beginning.

 

The month of April 2020 turned out to be a tough one for Zoom. From day one, allegations of leaked e-mail addresses and customer data available on the Dark Web were widespread.

 

Zoom responded immediately, improving security by establishing “waiting rooms” for safe access to classrooms and meetings. However, the effort was too little too late as far as most school districts were concerned. Many schools had discarded Zoom and adopted Google Meet to prevent significant breaches of the privacy of their students. Yet, Zoom sought to fix and overcome their overwhelming security concerns (as any company willing to protect its market share would have done).

 

Zoom keystroke snooping:

Researchers in Texas and Oklahoma have revealed that it is possible to say what someone is typing during a Zoom call only by watching their shoulders and arms.

 

Using a computer, the research team was able to find people’s passwords up to 75% of the time depending on the resolution of the camera, and whether the subject was wearing a sleeved shirt or long hair.

 

Any kind of video conferencing tool could be used for this, the researchers said, as could YouTube videos or streaming services like Twitch.

 

Zoom’s Security Tips:

Zoom has grown in the last few months, from 10 million meeting participants in December to more than 200 million as of today. With this rise in use, the security of Zoom has been brought to light. If you are worried about Zoom is safe to use, the answer is that it depends on a few factors, but using a few safety tips, you can keep your online conferences safe and secure.

 

  • Do not use the (single personal meeting ID for all meetings, instead use the randomly generated ID for each meeting. Create separate passwords for each meeting to be secured.
  • Always enable the “Waiting Room” feature before you start a meeting. Zoom has a feature called “Waiting Room” that allows you to control when a participant enters the meeting. As a host, you can either accept the attendees one by one or keep all the attendees in the waiting room and accept them all at once.
  • Disable “join before host” to prevent attendees from joining the Zoom meeting before the host. This is crucial because, with this setup, the first attendee who enters the meeting will automatically become the host and have complete control of the meeting.
  • Inspect the list of participants frequently during the meeting to ensure that no intruders are present.
  • Disable file transfer so that no confidential files can be hacked or displayed by unwanted parties.
  • Use a security solution that offers an app risk assessment to detect possible fake and out-of-date versions, search for unwanted network traffic, and block malicious connections.

Is Zoom is still safe to use?

Does all this mean that Zoom is not safe to use? No. Unless you address state or corporate secrets or disclose personal health information to a patient, Zoom should be good.

 

There is not much risk of using Zoom for school classes, after-work meetings, or even work meetings that stick to regular business. Kids are likely to continue to flock to it since they can also use Snapchat Zoom filters.

The COVID 19 pandemic has propelled digital transformation to the top of the must-have in the minds of CIOs. It has been a go-to to allow organisations to enhance their customer experience and generate higher ROI. Businesses with a brick-and-mortar presence have changed their approach to developing a digital presence to remain competitive and ahead of their competition. Many have already started their journey of digital transformation, although others are in the development process.

 

The landscape of technology is diverse. While the pandemic pushed companies to embrace digital systems, such as automation, big data, digital workforce, etc., they were soon replaced by the next major wave of digital transformation. This new wave has introduced new patterns to shape the next standard. Here are the top ten digital transformation trends for 2021.

 

  1. Mainstream 5G:

We’ve heard about the benefits of 5G for years now. Still, it wasn’t until remote work, video conferencing and digital communication became the centre of our lives this year that the need for reliable access and more bandwidth became a true, tangible advantage that we could all wrap our heads around. Our dependency on phones, tablets and other devices – including an ever-increasing number of smart sensors – illustrates the need for a multi-lane highway that telecommunications companies already knew we would need. Businesses can not continue to be disconnected today, and 5 G deployments have become a crucial part of the solution. As we continue to work together and run a school from our homes, the importance of 5 G will become more and more mainstream in 2021.

 

  1. Hyperautomation:

Hyperautonomy is a hyperautomatic derivative. With end-to-end intelligence and digital automation, machines can become more and more autonomous, needing less manual intervention.

 

Progress in the field of self-employed cars is only one such example that will revolutionise the world of mobility and the logistics business. Such automated, autonomous devices prove to be important in the implementation of strict measures in situations such as the outbreak of COVID-19.

 

AI and machine learning approaches are now being developed and applied on a wider scale. The buzz associated with intelligent test automation attracts tremendous interest from global IT leaders. As the advantages of integrating AI and ML capabilities into processes such as test automation become apparent, the upward trend is anticipated in the coming months.

 

  1. Data and User Privacy:

As a result of the privacy issues of digital users, we can see organisations concentrating on user privacy and data privacy. Soon, this will become a unique selling proposition for many to jump over their competitors. This may mean that users would be able to allow/deny access to their data on apps, the web and other digital platforms in the next normal way. The user will be the owner of his results. Data protection has shaken even multinational associates, pushing them to comply with the latest rules laid down by the authorities. The EU has already joined the Compliance Policy with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other regions have followed suit.

 

  1. APIs – The Road to Cloud:

Cloud has already been incorporated by most organisations to create a smooth business continuity and to fasten the market. Application programming interfaces (APIs) are essential to developing economies of scale. From transforming legacy infrastructure to micro-services, APIs can help companies minimise data silos and create a collaborative experience. It will also help them turn fragmented applications into one data mart behemoth, allowing them to make important business decisions and growing their overall ROI.

 

  1. Remote Workforce:

What has been regarded as a potential transitional approach for the post-Covid world seems to evolve into a prolonged pattern. In addition to helping preserve employee wellbeing, this trend of operating remotely is fuelled by the performance and productivity improvements made possible by remote technology. While the pendulum will inevitably swing back to a balance between higher productivity and the importance of face-to-face collaboration, it is likely to shift the way we see work in the future permanently.

 

  1. Driverless Cars, Drones and Smart Cities:

I know we’ve been talking about them, literally, for years. But I think that with edge computing rowing and 5 G finally about to burst, we’ll see some innovations in the 2021 digital transformation trends in driverless cars, drones, and smart cities. Companies like Intel / Nvidia and BMW / Volvo are collaborating to put these emerging innovations into practice for real.

 

  1. eLearning:

Due to COVID-19, eLearning has made a breakthrough. Many people around the world are now learning online. eLearning solutions will continue to be the first option for organisations to train their employees as they provide greater flexibility and are easier to deploy.

 

In response to the effects of coronavirus on work, organisations like LinkedIn are trying to keep up with recent developments by taking steps to inform their users. Professionals across the globe continue to adapt to the new standard by constantly using online learning and learning new skills that are the most in-demand.

 

No wonder LinkedIn ranks # 1 among the top 10 most influential eLearning organisations. However, some 3500 organisations from around the world are collaborating on and implementing strategies for digital learning.

 

  1. AI Conversational:

I know, Siri still sucks, and it’s still hard to use voice to text to write a chat message. However, I do believe that in 2020 at least some sort of conversational AI will become useful.

 

Microsoft Conversational AI is working extremely hard to develop a platform that can not only hear correctly but also follow complex conversations and understand the complexities of emotion while continuing to evolve over time. Are we going to see it in everyday technology in 2020? Possibly not — but I hope the roots of this will be improved in the coming year.

 

  1. Blockchain beyond Crypto:

Blockchain was a 2019 failure. But coming in 2020, I do believe we’re actually going to see some practical use of blockchain cases outside cryptocurrency. We know that Amazon Web Services is already working hard, as are tonnes of other global leaders, including China’s Alibaba. What’s more, they’re actually putting together real-time use cases to go along with technology, particularly in terms of intellectual property, royalties, etc. I assume that things are finally going to take off this coming year.

 

  1. Reimagined Customer Experience:

It’s not just all about making the best products. The latest generation of millennials prefers comfort over loyalty. Build digital experiences that help modern web in the form of progressive web applications, true native UX-class mobile apps, smart chat-bots, conversational apps, wearables, and interactive experiences that exploit augmented reality. Organisations are seeking to optimise the use of components and back-end integration, contributing to cohesive and consistent experience across networks.

 

The next big thing in Customer Experience (CX) is to develop beautiful applications for any audience across any platform with no restrictions on user experience taking full advantage of the existing OS device for the native and full power of modern web browsers.

 

Conclusion:

In short, a new wave of digital technology trends will reduce human interactions, increase efficiency, initiate automation, and make life simpler. Organisations need to realise the value of this technology paradigm shift and exploit it to build digital communities and become future-ready firms to embrace the new standard with both hands.

Introduction:

Numerous associations around the globe have requested that their representatives telecommute because of the Coronavirus pandemic. This has made network safety challenges for some organisations as they frequently scarcity on the experience, conventions, and advancements to empower remote workers in a protected way. DRP (Disaster recovery plan) depicts how an association will react to some random calamity situation, with the objective of IT support in business cycles and works and keeping up full business progression.

Challenges:

Remote work might be requesting and arduous remarkably in the beginnings. The preferences and solace that accompanies working from any spot are massive. However, the snags that telecommuters need to face may cause many issues and lead to the absence of work-life balance. Particularly, with the digitisation in business and mechanical advancement, the number of individuals working distantly will increase due to pandemic.

Cyber Security risk:

Numerous workers are telecommuting unexpectedly. They do not seem aware of the accepted procedures that accomplished telecommuters apprehend, for example, utilising a virtual private network (VPN) on public organisations provided by the IT support team or not sparing delicate data on their gadgets. Inexperienced representatives are the main source of network protection breaks, and the danger increments exponentially while remotely work. Social engineering, phishing threat, and malware attack enlisted as a cyber risk in remote work.

Secure connection:

Over two-thirds of organisations contemplate shared Wi-Fi to be a top worry for security, yet 61% realise their representatives utilise these associations for work. To diminish the weaknesses related to public Wi-Fi organisations, bosses can boycott the utilisation of unstable remote connections, Use geo-positioning to limit the spots from which organisation nexus can be gotten to, and arrange the utilisation of a virtual private network (VPN) for distant work.

Access Policies:

Regrettably, numerous entrepreneurs do not comprehend the necessities for a strong remote access strategy in disaster recovery. Network access is changing between all specialists, not only for remote workers. IT support is fundamental to forestall difficult issues like fraud, information penetrates, and information misfortune for disaster recovery in the pandemic.

Is working from home working for you?

 

At times working from home can throw up all sorts of situations that can cause you to be less productive.  Taking the dog for a walk, feeding, and schooling the children, making sure you are plugged into the Matrix – you do not want to miss that all-important email or Teams meeting!

 

Setting up a home office that suits your needs is extremely important.  You want to make sure you are relaxed and comfortable during your working day…. so here are a few tips that may help.

 

  1. Schedule: Sticking to a schedule is essential when you are telecommuting. You need to update your shared calendar, mentioning your availability. Working remotely comes with the added benefit of no commute; thus, you can start working earlier and end early, leaving additional time for your family.

 

  1. Performance analysis: Your manager needs to know that you are completing your daily tasks on time, not just sitting watching TV instead of working at home. It would be best if you gave daily updates via Zoom and send weekly updates via email to your entire team.

 

  1. Advantages your employer has from your flexible setup: Your work from home arrangement should be beneficial for both you and your company. Draft a proposal in such a way that shows significant positive changes in your work output, that favours the company. Suggest benefits like increased productivity, overhead cost savings, longer work hours, and fewer sick days for the employer.

 

  1. Communication with the team: Use time slots on your calendar. Mark all the slots you will not be available. This increases transparency between you and your colleagues working from the office. Also, share your contact number with the team for any emergency when working remotely.

 

  1. Remote work setup at home: Make sure you have a productive and practical workspace along with the proper tech and set up to work effectively from home. Be prepared with your flexible arrangement at home, including a laptop and other essentials like an internet connection, a standing desk and chair, a good pair of headphones, etc.

 

  1. Security: Keep in mind the security side of working outside of the office. We suggest the use of VPN’s and data encryption software. It would be best if you comply with the security guidelines of your IT provider.