Zoom App Not Safe For Use, Says Centre

New Delhi: The popular videoconferencing app is “not safe” for use by private individuals, according to a Union Home Ministry advisory issued on Thursday.

The Centre has already barred government officials from using the app.

The home ministry advisory came after the national cyber security agency — Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT–in) — flagged the cyber vulnerability of the popular app, currently being used by tens of thousands of professionals working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hindustan Times reported.

The home ministry asked private individuals using Zoom to follow certain guidelines — including preventing unauthorised entry in a conference room, preventing an unauthorised participant from carrying out malicious activity on the terminals of others, and avoiding DOS attack by restricting users through passwords and access grant.

A DOS (denial-of-service) attack is done by hackers to make a computer or network resource unavailable to its intended users.

The latest advisory issued by the government’s Cyber Coordination Centre or CyCord is for private individuals, and officials pointed out that the NIC (National Informatics Centre) platform is being used for most government video conferences.