Zoom will enable waiting rooms by default to stop Zoombombing

On the face of it this sounds fair, but the problem is that being "sceptical" and "realistic" is far easier and requires much less effort than being "visionary"[1]. Too much of the former early on can really suck the life out of a team, increasing the risk that the product fails, or is simply never built.

Safeguarding from abuse is much better achieved by systematic thinking and discipline (which are learned skills) rather than hiring "realists" who might simply turn out to be whiners and energy vampires.

As much as Zoom is currently in the spotlight, and I can't say I'm overjoyed by a number of the issues I've read about (e.g., encryption keys being passed through Chinese servers?!??), many of them are the problems of success, and every successful company has or will experience their fair share of those.

[1] I might also add that it's far easier to commentate and to critique than to do, eh, TechCrunch?

As for the Zoombombing, I can’t say that I am surprised. All you really need is the URL.

And all the other tools are like that too. Sure, you can require a separate passcode, but damn it, it’s like trying to figure out rocket science to enter the passcode.

1) you have to dial the number

2) you have to punch in the meeting ID

3) you have to punch in the passcode.

4) ERROR. You flipped it, and used the passcode for the meeting ID instead. Aargh.. frustration.

5) Forget about the passcode. Just let everyone in that has the meeting ID. And monitor if there’s someone unknown on the line.

I get the logic of it, but in a practical sense doesn’t it have the potential to be different? For example, if you have to enter a correct ID, wait, and then get prompted for a password, couldn’t that potentially slow down an attacker?

Alternately, couldn’t a bunch of correct meeting ID’s followed by incorrect PINs present an opportunity to flag the ID as under attack, or give a prompt to a host that would spur inquiry, or something?

Perhaps I’m wrong about this but it seems like there are some non trivial differences between the two.

Let's be clear: The issues that Zoom is having were seen by other businesses in the same industry decades ago. At a time where every other messaging system in the world has been moving to end to end encryption - even facebook, Zoom is still lying about it to customers. It doesn't require a room full of sceptics to figure that out, it requires some sort of development process that involves a the tiniest bit of thought before rushing out a feature - a culture that is apparently consistently lacking in large parts of silicon valley.

Btw, If you think that what we've seen over the last few years is that commentating on tech is an easy career to make a living at, you haven't been paying attention to the state of journalism.