Zoom Video Communications (ZM -0.72%), the popular video conferencing app to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic, has beefed up the security as part of its 90-day security enhancement plan. 

Its welcome news to investors who are fearful Zoom is a flash in the pan type story, ultimately fizzling out as consumers and corporate America turn to more secure offerings. Shares of the tech stock jumped on the announcement and continue to trade higher. 

A person on a Zoom meeting with four participants on the computer screen.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

Zoom 5.0 beefs up encryption 

Called Zoom 5.0, the security enhancements which comes way of a software update, improves the encryption standard, making it harder for hackers to intercept data. Zoom found itself in hot water last month when it surfaced it wasn’t using end-to-end encryption. Some data was even being routed through China, even though the call and the participants were based in the U.S.

With the update, Zoom is going from the 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard to AES 256-bit GCM encryption. Zoom said the upgraded encryption provides “confidentiality and integrity assurances” on Zoom Meeting, Zoom Video Webinar, and Zoom Phone data. Account administrators also get more control via the update. They can now choose which data center region the meeting is hosted in. 

Zoom also created a security icon, which groups together all the security features and enhances the control the hosts have over participants. Hosts can now report a user through the security icon. Waiting Room, a feature that lets hosts keep participants in virtual waiting rooms, is now on by default for certain customers including education, basic, and single-license Pro accounts. 

“I am proud to reach this step in our 90-day plan, but this is just the beginning,” wrote Zoom CEO Eric Yuan in the blog post. “We will earn our customers’ trust and deliver them happiness with our unwavering focus on providing the most secure platform.”

Zoom has been taking flak for weeks 

For weeks now Zoom has been under attack from critics who say the video conferencing app isn’t secure enough to be used en-masse. With the pandemic raging on, schools shuttered across the nation, and millions of people working from home, Zoom has become one of the go-to video apps. But with lax security, bad actors have descended, breaking into meetings and potentially stealing corporate secrets. Zoom accounts have even turned up on the dark web, providing hackers easy entry into the video app.

As a result, schools, businesses, and government agencies in the U.S. and around the world have banned Zoom including the government of Taiwan and NASA . Those security issues have also raised the ire of state attorney generals who are reportedly banding together to look into the privacy and security practices at the tech company. New York Attorney General Letitia James has already sent a letter to Zoom inquiring about its security enhancement plans.

For its part Zoom has been upfront about its security woes, vowing to take 90 days to focus solely on security and privacy and to earn back the trust of its customers. It also brought on Alex Stamos, the former Facebook security chief and now an adjunct professor at Standard, to act as a security adviser for Zoom. Stamos said he was impressed by Yuan’s vision for the video conferencing app and the CEO’s willingness to take “aggressive action” to beef up security.

Zoom keeps on zooming along 

Despite all the backlash and rivals trying to capitalize on Zoom’s security issues, the video conferencing app remains hugely popular. As of Wednesday (April 22), Zoom has more than 300 million daily users, up from 200 million at the start of April. Zoom had peak users of just 10 million at the end of December. It’s not only individual users that are ignoring the security concerns. The UK’s House of Commons is allowing British MPs to participate in Parliament via a Zoom meeting.

It marks the biggest change in the parliament in centuries and underscores just how prevalent Zoom has become in pandemic ridden society.