I worked in the video conferencing industry for 10 years, and alongside that I started PhD looking at the privacy and security of such systems, particularly for organisations that have to communicate under adversarial circumstances, such as international NGOs and opposition groups under oppressive regimes. My research looks both at what they need, and at what existing tools, such as the ones they currently use, provide in the way of functionality, privacy, and security.
Was this ever a niche topic? Not now. The whole world operates through videoconferencing, including the UK government. The public and journalists have security and privacy concerns – e.g. can communication be overheard, Zoombombed, and who can save recordings?
I will report preliminary results of my research, analysing common security and privacy problems and how the market leading solutions defend against those (or not), including a look at Zoom that has been particularly in the news.