Due to social estrangement as a measure to curb coronavirus contagion, the use of remote communication tools, mainly video conferencing platforms, has unsuitably increased, cyber security awareness experts say. One of the most profited companies is Zoom, which has gained hundreds of thousands of users in the most recent weeks.
While these tools have helped maintain millions of jobs, not everything is good news, because as their use increases, they also reveal more and more security flaws and questionable practices that put user information security at risk. That is why, in addition to offering a quality service, technology companies have begun to implement more and more controls and thus be able to advertise as safer video conferencing options.
One of these companies is Google, which has just announced the launch of Google Meet, a free video conferencing platform that will be available in less than a week. According to cyber security awareness experts, Google has invested years of research and development to make Google Meet a functional, secure and reliable platform that can be used by public organizations, private companies, schools and individual users around the world.
From the first days of May, any user with a Gmail account will be able to sign up for Meet and test its multiple features, including a very easy-to-use interface, screen sharing, real-time subtitles and customization.
Among the main features of Google Meet, we highlight:
- A robust set of controls for the host, including the ability to admit or deny entry to a session, and mute or remove a participant
- The decision not to allow anonymous users, mitigation some attack risks
- Codes for joining a Google Meet session are complex by default, preventing brute force attacks
- Google Meet sessions are encrypted in transit, and all meeting recordings stored on Google Drive will also have transit encryption
- Meet will be completely Chrome-based, so it won’t require the installation of any additional plugin or tool, making users less susceptible to some attacks
In addition, cyber security awareness experts say Google Meet will operate on a highly secure and resilient private network, showing a strong focus on users’ data security.
For further reports on vulnerabilities, exploits, malware variants and computer security risks you can access the website of the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS), as well as the official platforms of technology companies.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
