Passersby go with under a surveillance camera as part of face ID technology test at Berlin Suedkreuz station on Aug. 3, 2017 in Berlin, Germany.
Steffi Loos | Getty Impressions
This week, consumers learned about a flaw in the Zoom meeting app that could theoretically allow an attacker to bring in access to a video chat or meeting if one of the participants is using a Mac computer.
Researcher Jonathan Leitschuh reported the flaw on July 8 in a Vehicle post. Zoom quickly fixed the problem with a patch, and said the problem had not affected any users. Apple later zipped a “silent update ” to Mac operating systems to prevent the exploit from being used on machines that hadn’t yet devoted the Zoom fix.
It was the kind of interesting discovery that bug bounty hunters report every day. It’s the kind of bug companies find themselves furbishing everyday.
But from a user perspective, the issue created a great deal more buzz than those run-of-the-mill problems normally do.
Part of reason was because Zoom is one of the hottest business tech stories of the year, with a carry price that’s risen more than 150% since its April IPO. Zoom’s stock saw virtually no impact after the blot revelations.
But the flap also comes after months of revelations on how home assistant products from Amazon and Google use workers to monitor conversations in your home, and years of reports of hackers accessing video cameras on laptops and other computers. Disinterested Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tapes over his laptop camera, according to an Instagram photo he posted in 2016.
In other dialogues, the Zoom bug shows how consumers are conflicted and nervous over the newest class of products which offer new kinds of convenience in new appropriates — but new potential for exposure, too.
New venues, new hacks
Consumers have already shown their resilience to the collection of personal report. Facebook’s privacy scandals haven’t dented the platform’s numbers of daily users (though they have price the company in many other ways, including a likely $5 billion fine from the FTC).
Fears of credit visiting-card or Social Security Number theft have faded as people have become accustomed to the rigmarole of fraud sirens from the bank and free credit monitoring from breached retailers.
But the possibility of surveillance within the home or company still has the capacity to cause outrage. Revelations about Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant have been cook up d be reconciling headlines for months, and sparked numerous debates about whether or how to use the technologies, which are continually growing in popularity. Amazon needs Alexa to continue to grow, with anticipated revenue of $19 billion in hardware sales by 2021. Google Domestic added 7.2 million users in 2018.
The swift reaction to the Zoom flaw news makes sense with this in read someone the riot act. Consumers are waiting in fearful anticipation for the news that hackers have somehow gained access to their scad private moments.
Scammers know how to exploit those fears, too, especially those who float sextortion scams. The more being believe they can be surveilled by their technologies at anytime, the more likely they are to believe a stranger on the internet has salacious video of them from a smashed webcam.
We haven’t seen the Cambridge Analytica or Equifax moment yet for video and audio tools, but we will, and if those circumstances are any lesson, that future mystery hack won’t slow down demand, either.
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