Singapore’s Ministry of Education has advised teachers to stop using the popular video conferencing application Zoom to conduct remote learning classes.
This decision comes after a couple of “very serious incidents” were reported by the local media, including one where hackers shared indecent images, and a second case where unidentified men barged into an ongoing geography class with teenage girls and passed lewd comments.
The move follows a similar decision by many schools across the United States, most of whom are switching to Microsoft Teams, and further bans from the governments of Germany and Taiwan on using Zoom for official meetings
- Germany bans Zoom for official use
- 'Zoom-bombing' is now a federal offense in the US
- Zoom ups security to try and prevent 'Zoom-bombing'
Several major companies, including SpaceX and Google, have also asked their employees to avoid using the app for official communication.
Zooming problems
Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) stated that it is, "currently investigating both breaches and will lodge a police report if warranted. As a precautionary measure, our teachers will suspend their use of Zoom until these security issues are ironed out.”
The coronavirus-led lockdown has led Zoom to quickly become one of the most used and downloaded video conferencing software offerings around, with its easy to use interface and free accounts for schools making it popular.
However, multiple reports concerning data security, lack of end-to-end encryption, routing calls through China even for non-Chinese users and "Zoombombing" attacks have all caused a major dent in Zoom’s credibility.
Even though Zoom’s CEO has publicly apologized for these vulnerabilities and has assured that the company will iron out these issues within 90 days, the company still faces a class-action lawsuit.
Via: Reuters
