Recently, a new feature known as the two-factor authentication feature has been introduced by Zoom, a popular video-conferencing application. This feature is specifically for ensuring privacy and improving the security of the users.
When the new feature is enabled, the user will be asked to present two or more pieces of evidence to authenticate the ownership of their account. These pieces of evidence could be fingerprint or voice recognition, a password, or a PIN or a smartphone. This feature can be enabled for all the users in the account or just for users that have specific roles and/or groups.
Zoom reported that their revenue from the months of May-July, 2020 has quadrupled as compared to the same months of 2019. Their revenue now stands at about $663.5 million (Rs. 4858 crores). Post the report of their revenue, they introduced the new 2FA feature.
In the past, Zoom has faced many allegations for privacy breaches. They have been trying to strengthen the privacy and security of users by introducing several features every now and then. Hence, this new 2FA is like an additional layer of security for those users who are in need of it.
The users of 2FA can also use authentication apps that support the Time-Based One-Time Password (TOTP) protocol or have Zoom send a code via SMS or phone call as the second factor of the account authentication process.
A variety of authentication methods like OAuth, SAML, or password-based authentication can be enabled or disabled through Zoom. This new feature can be considered as an extra layer of security. It will be particularly useful for organizations where sensitive and confidential data is being shared over Zoom meetings.
This also helps in cutting costs on separate single sign-on services that are being used by many small businesses and schools. The new 2FA is an important step taken by Zoom towards protecting users from security breaches which have sadly become a very common occurrence over the internet.
