In today’s “Ask Me Anything” webinar hosted by Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan, we provided an update on our progress since our last executive webinar on Aug. 19. Today, our team reviewed recent and upcoming product updates and introduced our new Head of Vulnerability Management and Bug Bounty, Adam Ruddermann, who provided an in-depth review of our vulnerability and bug bounty programs, including the progress we’ve made and our plans for the future. 

Eric was joined on today’s webinar by Oded Gal, our Chief Product Officer; Janelle Raney, Head of Product Marketing; Lynn Haaland, Deputy General Counsel, Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer; Brendan Ittelson, Chief Technology Officer; and Ruddermann. 

Recent and Upcoming Product Updates

Aug. 31 product updates:

• Enhanced two-factor authentication: To make it easier for admins and organizations to protect their users, we added SMS, Phone Call, and Recovery Codes to all clients and Zoom Rooms.
• Expanded EU data center options: Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland are now listed as individual data centers that can be enabled or disabled for data in transit. Data in transit, or data in motion, is data actively moving from one location to another such as across the internet or through a private network. Data at rest is data that is not actively moving from device to device or network to network such as data stored in a cloud data center.
• Manage virtual backgrounds at group or account level: Account owners and admins can now upload and manage virtual backgrounds for meetings and webinars at the group level, or for all users.

Sept. 20 planned product updates: 

• External contact details on Zoom Team Chat: Admins of channels can view external contact details including name, email address, the date they were added to the channel, and the channels they are a part of. The admin has the ability to remove the external contact completely from their account.

Adam Ruddermann: Vulnerability Management Update

Oded introduced Adam Ruddermann, our Head of Vulnerability Management & Bug Bounty. As the former Director of NCC Group’s Bug Bounty Services Practices and a former Technical Program Manager at Facebook leading their bug bounty program, Adam brings over 15 years of experience in product security to the Zoom team. 

Adam provided an in-depth review of Zoom’s vulnerability and bug bounty programs, as well as the notable changes Zoom has made to these programs, including: 

• Centralized coordination and tracking of vulnerability remediation 
• Improved responsiveness to security researcher reports
• Expanding our team that focuses on Product Security Incident Response, Vulnerability Management, and Bug Bounty 

Further planned enhancements to our vulnerability programs in the future include:

• Launching an improved Vulnerability Disclosure Program: We will launch a new trust center portal on zoom.us with publicly visible vulnerability disclosure terms
• Rebooting private programs: We will revamp our private bug bounty programs by increasing payouts and providing unique research opportunities for our top contributors
• Live hacking events: We will organize live hacking events to validate our progress and build deeper relationships with the security research community
• Launching public bug bounty programs: We are exploring creative forms of public bug bounty programs and engagements with security researchers

To report a bug to our bug bounty program, email us at [email protected] for our dedicated team to review. 

Q&A 

Can you explain how the Unmute All feature works now?

Our update to the Unmute All feature (for meetings of 200 or fewer participants) requires participants to give the host consent to unmute them; however, once the participant has given the host consent to be unmuted, the host will be able to unmute that participant for all future meetings. For more information about the Unmute All feature, please visit our support page.  

What changes have been made to Gallery View?

Participants can now drag and drop different video streams to rearrange their Gallery View. Hosts also have the ability to rearrange the Gallery View and select “follow host view order” to provide the same view to all participants.

What can educators do to prevent disruptions in class lessons being held over Zoom?

We recommend that all account admins and teachers ensure privacy settings such as Passcodes and Waiting Rooms are enabled. Teachers may also disable participants’ ability to rename themselves and lock the meeting to reduce the risk of disruptions. And remember to not share your Meeting ID or Passcode publicly to prevent bad actors from entering your meetings. Finally, schools can make use of our feature that allows only participants from a certain domain to join. 

What are your tips on managing remote teams and ensuring alignment on company goals? 

Eric explained that it’s very important to be mindful of your own and  your teams’ mental health due to the isolation that employees often feel while working from home, in addition to stressing the importance of a positive company culture. He also mentioned that developing a process for hiring new employees and onboarding will help set expectations and align your goals. 

How do I use the Closed Captioning feature?

Once the host has enabled the feature in their settings, they can assign someone to provide closed captions, which will appear in a window within the meeting. Check out our support article on Closed Captioning if you have additional questions, or check out the Zoom App Marketplace for app integrations like Rev that provide live captioning for your Zoom meetings. 

Does Zoom offer discounts to nonprofits?

Zoom does offer discounts to nonprofits, which you can find on TechSoup. 

What is unique about Zoom Phone?

Zoom Phone is built on the same platform as Zoom Meetings, meaning organizations get the same level of consistency, quality, and reliability as other Zoom products and don’t have to deploy separate systems for their video and phone systems. Users can also seamlessly upgrade any Zoom Phone call to a Zoom Meeting with the click of a button. 

Are there different audio channels for post-editing? 

Yes, when you choose to record locally to your device, you also have the option to record separate audio files for each participant, allowing for easy post-editing. 

Where can I find additional resources on how to use Zoom?

On our events page we have a number of live training sessions that happen every week, giving you real-time access to experienced members of our team who can answer your questions. If you can’t attend these trainings, we also have on-demand webinars on the same page that you can access at any time. 

Can you tell us more about Zoomtopia 2020?

Zoomtopia 2020 will be taking place virtually Oct. 14th and 15th. With over 125 speakers and 80 sessions there’s something for everyone. You can register for Zoomtopia 2020 for free and view the agenda at Zoomtopia.com. 

Can you enable noise reduction on Zoom?

The Zoom platform has a Noise Reduction Feature that is automatically enabled for every account; however, you can change the level of noise reduction to experience a wider range of audio. 

Thank You!

Thanks for attending this month’s session, and thank you to everyone who submitted questions! We truly appreciate your support on our journey to make Zoom the world’s most secure enterprise communications platform.

If you missed this week’s session, you can watch the recording here:

Editor’s note: This post was updated Nov. 6, 2020, to clarify language around customizing your data routing settings.