Videoconferencing and communications giant Zoom announced an expansion to the company’s end-to-end encryption (E2EE) capabilities to Zoom Phone and support for Breakout Rooms (coming soon). The new E2EE capabilities in Zoom Meetings is designed to help further help users achieve seamless and secure communications.
In E2EE for Zoom Phone, once enabled by the account admin in the web portal, users will have a new option to upgrade to E2EE during calls between users on the same Zoom account that occur via the Zoom desktop or mobile client. Zoom says the upgrade takes a second and can help add an extra layer of privacy to calls occurring over Zoom Phone.
Once enabled, E2EE provides that the call is encrypted using cryptographic keys known only to the devices of the caller and receiver. Additionally, users will have the option to verify E2EE status by providing a unique security code to one another.
To use Zoom’s E2EE capabilities, users must have the following in place:
- The account admin will have to turn on E2EE via the web portal
- Callers will need to be on the same Zoom account, and can only make one-to-one phone calls
- Both callers have to use the Zoom Phone desktop or mobile client (PSTN is not supported)
- Both the callers will need to have automatic call recording turned off
In E2EE support for Breakout Rooms, users can break participants into groups for smaller discussions within a hosted E2EE Zoom meeting. Utilizing this feature will provide the same experience as a standard E2EE meeting, says Zoom, except each breakout room receives its own unique meeting encryption key. Users can leverage the feature when they need to add an extra layer of security for important, private, or just want to get certain people together during an E2EE meeting.
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