The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has officially users of the warned users of the video-conferencing application, Zoom, that there may be safety concerns. The Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord) of the MHA said as much in its latest advisory
The app has become quite popular across the globe as more and more workers shift to work-from-home schedules during nationwide lockdowns.
India follows Germany, Singapore and Taiwan in expressing its safety concerns, as the others have outright placed usage bans on the app.
The Home Ministry has for now barred the use of Zoom for government purposes and issued warnings regarding its individual use. Everybody from schools to offices has been using it for communication purposes while working remotely.
Citing that the app was vulnerable to cyber attacks,the ministry has advised individuals using the app to implement precautionary measures including restricting entry through passwords, preventing unauthorised participants from joining in on calls, and ending meetings, as opposed to simply exiting them.
Here is the list of checks shared by the MHA to ensure a safer Zoom experience:
- Set new user ID and password for each meeting
- Enable ‘Waiting Room’ feature in order to ensure that a user has permission from the host to enter a meeting and never otherwise
- Removed participants should not be able to re-join meets, disable rejoin feature
- File transfer only in rarest cases allowed
- Recording to be permitted only in select cases
- End meeting before leaving it
The MHA said that that adhering to these safety practices would be essential not only to prevent unauthorized entry by hackers into confidential meeting rooms but it would also prevent malicious DOS attacks, while preventing authorized people to carry out hidden agendas within the meeting environs.