Zoom acquires Keybase for messaging encryption

Zoom Video Communications as acquired Keybase, a start-up offering a  secure messaging and file-sharing service. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Keybase, which is based in New York City, is a key directory that maps social media identities to encryption keys in a publicly auditable manner. Additionally, it offers an end-to-end encrypted chat and cloud storage system, called Keybase Chat and the Keybase Filesystem respectively.  The company was founded in 2014 by Chris Coyne and Maxwell Krohn. Investors included Andreessen Horowitz.

Zoom said the deal accelerates its plan to build end-to-end encryption that can reach current Zoom scalability.

“There are end-to-end encrypted communications platforms. There are communications platforms with easily deployable security. There are enterprise-scale communications platforms. We believe that no current platform offers all of these. This is what Zoom plans to build, giving our users security, ease of use, and scale, all at once,” said Eric S. Yuan, CEO of Zoom. “The first step is getting the right team together. Keybase brings deep encryption and security expertise to Zoom, and we’re thrilled to welcome Max and his team. Bringing on a cohesive group of security engineers like this significantly advances our 90-day plan to enhance our security efforts.”

“Keybase is thrilled to join Team Zoom!” said Max Krohn, Keybase.io co-founder and developer. “Our team is passionate about security and privacy, and it is an honor to be able to bring our encryption expertise to a platform used by hundreds of millions of participants a day.”