Zoom Acquires Encryption Company Keybase as Part of Security Flaw Improvements

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] Zoom Video Communications, the operator of the video conferencing platform Zoom, is acquiring encryption company Keybase. This move aims to address ongoing security flaw controversies and plans to establish end-to-end encryption within the video conferencing platform.

Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, said on the 7th (local time), "There is currently no platform that supports end-to-end encryption, security features, and enterprise-grade communication all together," adding, "Zoom will build this to provide users with security, ease of use, and scalability all at once," explaining the reason behind the acquisition.

Accordingly, Keybase's deep encryption and security experts will join Zoom. Max Krohn, co-founder and developer of Keybase, is expected to lead Zoom's security engineering team. The detailed acquisition terms have not been disclosed.

The acquisition of Keybase is part of Zoom's 90-day plan announced last April. Previously, Zoom issued an official apology after hackers intruded unauthorizedly into video meetings and classes, playing pornographic videos in so-called 'Zoom-bombing' incidents occurring worldwide. At that time, Zoom announced it would suspend general development work for 90 days and focus on cybersecurity and privacy protection efforts.

Economic media CNBC reported, "Once Keybase is implemented, Zoom users who schedule meetings will be able to choose end-to-end encryption," introducing CEO Yuan's statement that it is a "solution for users demanding the highest level of privacy to prevent uninvited participants from accessing conversations."

However, the media added that it will take some time to integrate Keybase's technology into Zoom's platform. Since it is currently mainly used by security and encryption experts, simplification is needed for Zoom's broad customer base.

Max Krohn said, "I am pleased to join Zoom," and "I find it very meaningful to be able to implement encryption expertise on a platform used by hundreds of millions of participants daily."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.