Okta brings authentication to encrypted Zoom meetings

Okta has announced the availability of a new identity verification mechanism that will bring end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to Zoom video meetings.

Available to paid customers, the user validation tool features Okta’s authentication and attestation capabilities to verify user identities by email through the company’s digital identity management system and also supports two-factor authentication (2FA).

“Zoom account admins can enable Okta Authentication for E2EE in the Security tab of the Zoom Web Portal,” write Okta Product Managers Ariel Zommer and Venkat Viswanathan.

“Once the Zoom account admin has enabled this feature, a meeting attendee can enable sharing of their identity by turning on the feature in their individual settings.” Further, admins can specify if 2FA is required or not.

After verifying their identities, users receive a blue shield icon with a lock next to their user name in the meeting participant list.

“Anyone participating in the meeting can hover over the icon to see a card which displays authenticated information about that person, including their company domain and corresponding Okta-verified email address,” Zommer and Viswanathan explain.

According to them, adding E2EE to Zoom calls is an important step to defend against participant impersonation attacks. It could also be used to protect against such attacks relying on deepfakes.

SecureAuth and Saviynt enter separate partnerships

Also working toward strengthening the security of digital systems, Saviynt and SecureAuth each entered new identity and access management (IAM) partnerships.

Saviynt joined forces with Ernst & Young LLP (EY U.S.) to address the challenges organizations face in managing and securing their digital assets while ensuring compliance with security policies and regulations.

The collaboration will see EY relying on Saviynt’s enterprise identity cloud (EIC) platform to strengthen the security of clients’ ecosystems. EY will also provide systems integration knowledge and implementation experience.

As for SecureAuth, the company joined forces with multi-cloud infrastructure automation software firm HashiCorp.The identity security solution provider says it will deliver support for its Arculix MFA into the HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) Vault via the command line interface (CLI) and application programming interface (API).

The move will enable HashiCorp customers to authenticate into HCP Vault using single sign-on (SSO) with SecureAuth’s Arculix.

In adjacent news, SecureAuth announced that it is a gold sponsor for the third annual ‘Identity Management Day,’ which will take place on April 11, 2023. The company also confirmed its director of solutions engineering, Donovan Blaylock II, will hold a webinar about ‘continuous authentication for invisible MFA.’

Saviynt is also involved in the event, co-chairing the online conference. Separately, the company recently borrowed $205 million from AB Private Credit Investors.

Article Topics

access management  |  digital identity  |  enterprise  |  identity access management (IAM)  |  multifactor authentication  |  Okta  |  Saviynt  |  SecureAuth