What you need to know
- The Indian government has issued an advisory to its employees, declaring the app 'unsafe.'
- Another government report also warned of significant weakness in the app that made it vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
- This follows similar moves by Google and various governmental agencies from Taiwan, the U.K., Singapore, and Germany.
After lucking out as the app of choice for video calls during the early stages of the crisis, things have generally been going downhill for Zoom since then. After the revelation of severe vulnerabilities in its encryption protocols, the video calling service was met with a barrage of criticism that has resulted in several organizations — ranging from tech mogul Google to governments in Taiwan, Singapore, U.K., and Germany — opting to ban its use by their employees.
The latest among these is the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (via The Economic Times), which this week issued an advisory referring to the app as an 'unsafe platform.' The note follows similar warnings by the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-in), which notes that the app contains "significant weaknesses which can make users vulnerable to cyber attacks, including leakage of sensitive office information to criminals."
The advisory asks staff to refrain from using the app for official purposes or to follow strict guidelines to ensure the safety of their communications. These include creating a new user ID and password before each meeting, disabling the Join feature, disabling file transfer, and more.
Zoom, for its part, has acknowledged the issues plaguing its service and has promised swift action. It's already improved password requirements for its app and has actively been courting security experts to help with bolstering its defenses.
