Zoom App Is Not Safe: MHA Issues Advisory

An advisory has been issued by the Cyber Co-ordination Center of the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the use of the Zoom video conferencing app which is becoming popular worldwide during the coronavirus lockdown. 

This advisory has been released to private sector video conferencing and online classes providing schools through this app. Already, many companies have asked their employees to work from home. In such a situation, this video conferencing app is being widely used in India as well. 

This advisory has been issued by the Cyber Co-ordination Center of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs after the data leaks related to this app came to light recently.

This advisory has not asked to stop using this app but users have been given some instructions to take precautions. The advisory states that Zoom is not a secure platform so this advisory has been issued. It clearly states that through this app an undesired entry is happening in the conference room. Keeping this in mind, instructions have been given to change some settings in the application. In particular, the locked meeting has been asked to be administered by the administrator only. Also, caution is advised before sharing the password.

Here are some points shared by the MHA:

• Setting a new user ID and password for each meeting.
• Enabling the Waiting Room feature in order to ensure that a user can enter only when the host conducting the meeting permits him to.
• Disabling join before host feature.
• Allowing screen sharing by host only.
• Disabling “Allow removed participants to re-join” feature.
• Restricting file transfer option.
• Restricting recording feature.
• Ending the meeting and not just leaving it.