zoom concerns

issues over zoom hacking and malware

You hadn't heard of online chat platform zoom before the pandemic...you almost certainly have now.

It's one of several tools we're now using to stay in touch...and do business.

...but a growing number of reports say zoom is easily hacked.

Abc 36's christy bollinger spoke with a local computer services company... who says it works hard to keep small businesses networks safe.

Christy"as we all know, zoom's use has exploded during this pandemic.

But is it trustworthy?"

People are using zoom now for parties, therapy, work meetings...i use it to interview people.

"zoom kind of helps compensates for some of the bad things going on right now by giving companies the ability to communicate with their customers and employees face to face."

Zoom says its number of daily users exploded from 10 million..

To 200 million from december to march.

"to increase that drastically within a matter of weeks it's pretty impressive that we didn't crash their system."

But with the explosion..

Came some negative reports... zoom is easily hacked... that the software is being used to distribute malware... viruses.

The ceo of i-safe..

A computer services company based in richmond..

Says he's not concerned.

"from a it guy perspective, you would say zoom is trustworthy?

I would.

There's security issues with any platform you use so nothing is completely secure.

But in the grand scheme of things we did not see any evidence that zoom should not be used and that it is an extremely risky platform."

Bob stamper says the hacking you've heard of...may have just been some unwelcome guests.

"not saying it hasn't happened but those articles that said people were being hacked it looked like people just got the zoom information and joined the meeting that were uninvited."

He says that's why you should a password for your meetings..

And only give that information to those invited... don't post it anywhere online.

"we recommend using the waiting room as well which allows you to see when a new user joins before they actually enter the meeting."

He says zoom has some technical glitches... but it's working to get those fixed... and says these tips should keep you safe in the mean time.

Christy bollinger, abc 36 news.

Millions across the