Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has warned the Zoom app users that the video-conferencing application is not safe for usage. In an advisory, the Government said that the videoconferencing app Zoom, which government officials have been barred from using, is “not safe” for use by private individuals.
The Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord), under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has issued an advisory on secure use of ZOOM Meeting Platform by private individuals. This advisory states that the platform is not for use by Government officers/officials for official purposes.
The document makes reference to earlier advisories of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team(Cert-In) and states that Zoom is not a safe platform. The guidelines have been issued to safeguard private individuals who would still like to use the platform for private purposes.
“The broad objective of this advisory is to prevent any unauthorized entry into a Zoom Conference Room and prevent the unauthorized participant to carry out malicious attacks on the terminals of other users in the conference,” said a Home Ministry release.
“Many organisations have allowed their staff to work from home to stop the spread of coronavirus disease. Online communication platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Teams for Education, Slack, Cisco WebEx etc are being used for remote meetings and webinars,” the CERT-in advisories dated March 30 and April 6 said.
“Insecure usage of the platform may allow cybercriminals to access sensitive information such as meeting details and conversations,” the advisories said.
In an interview with CNN last week, Zoom’s CEO Eric S Yuan had admitted that his firm had “moved too fast…and we had some missteps”, adding the company has learnt its lessons and “taken a step back to focus on privacy and security”.
