Blog
Vaibhav Srivastava 
17 April 2020After gaining herculean popularity amid the coronavirus crises, it seems that the stars are not in much in favour for the video conferencing app Zoom. Recently, it came in the limelight for Zoombombing issue. After which many companies, including SpaceX, a company owned by Elon Musk has put a complete ban on its use within his organisation. Now, the Indian government says Zoom video conferencing app is not safe for use in India as well and is vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Also Read: Ministry of Home Affair’s Notification (16 Page PDF)
The notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) came at a time when the app has gained immense prominence when most people are forced to do work from home all across the globe. The privacy issue has been associated with Zoom for a long time now. Due to this, the central government has notified all the ministries and its official staff to avoid official meeting on any third-party apps, including Zoom. The Indian government says Zoom video conferencing app is not safe due to rising security concerns.
The advisory which was issued on April 12, said that “the secure use of Zoom is meant for private individuals and can not be used in government offices for official purposes”. The government further said that CERT-In on the same had been notified on February 6 and March 30, 2020, respectively clarifying that “Zoom is not a safe platform”. This is why the Indian government says Zoom video conferencing app is not safe.
Also Read: Zoom to Put More Focus on Tightening Security and Privacy
Responding to the advisory notified by MHA, Zoom’s spokesperson said, “Zoom takes user security extremely seriously. A large number of global institutions ranging from the world’s largest financial services companies and telecommunications providers to non-governmental organisations and government agencies, have done exhaustive security reviews of our user, network and datacenter layers and continue to use Zoom for most or all of their unified communications needs.”
Indian government says Zoom video conferencing app is not safe. And in this league, other than Elan Musk’s SpaceX, many other companies and governments, such as Google, Standard Charted, Siemens, NASA, Taiwan government, Australian Defence Force have also joined. Apart from that, Singapore and New York City have asked schools to ban Zoom usage.
Also Read: Zoom has Become a Lifeline Amid Coronavirus Crises
