Zoom Meetings Aren’t Encrypted End-to-End, Despite Marketing

Along with recent news that Zoom sent your data to Facebook (although it stopped) now we learn that its video calls don’t use end-to-end encryption, despite the company marketing it as such.

…But despite this misleading marketing, the service actually does not support end-to-end encryption for video and audio content, at least as the term is commonly understood. Instead it offers what is usually called transport encryption, explained further below.

It just keeps getting worse for Zoom. It’s unfortunate the company has chosen such tactics, because it really is one of the better video calling apps out there.

Marriott Hit by Second Data Breach Affecting up to 5.2M People

Hotel chain Marriott International has suffered a second data breach, exposing the personal data of up to 5.2 million guests.

The breach, which began in mid-January 2020 and was discovered at the end of February 2020, saw contact details, including names, addresses, birth dates, gender, email addresses and telephone numbers exposed. Employer name, gender, room stay preferences and loyalty account numbers were also exposed.

Marriott has also said that at present it does not believe passports, payment details or passwords were exposed in the data breach.

It sounds like login credentials of two employees were stolen, likely through a social engineering attack.

Russia Postponing Introduction of Rules Forcing iPhones to Have State-Approved Apps

Russia has postponed the introduction of new legislation that required devices, including iPhones, to have state-approved apps pre-installed. AppleInsider reported that this is likely due to the current coronavirus outbreak. The legislation is now slated to come into force on January 31, 2021.

“When we buy complex electronic devices, they already have individual applications, mostly Western ones, pre-installed on them,” co-author of Russia’s legislation, Oleg Nikolayev said at the time. “Naturally, when a person sees them, they might think that there are no domestic alternatives available. And if, alongside pre-installed applications, we will also offer the Russian ones to users, then they will have a right to choose.”

Key Apple Supplier Raising $200 Million From Unknown 'Customer'

A key Apple supplier, Japan Display, has raised $200 million from a “customer”, Reuters reported.  There is speculation that the unknown source of cash was, in fact, Apple itself.

The $200 [sic] fund will come in the form of the customer purchasing equipment at Japan Display’s main smartphone screen factory in central Japan, the company said in a statement. As Japan Display owed Apple more than $800 million as of last year for the $1.5 billion cost of building the plant, the fund to be raised would be used for repayment, the sources have said.