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India Says Zoom 'Not a Safe Platform' For Video Conferencing (reuters.com) 49

Posted by BeauHD from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.
India is the latest country to denounce videoconferencing software Zoom, calling it "not a safe platform." Reuters reports: "Zoom is a not a safe platform," the Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord) of India's ministry of home affairs said in a 16-page advisory. The government body also provided guidelines on how to avoid unauthorized users from carrying out malicious acts while using the tool. Zoom's mobile app saw a sharp surge in downloads in India as the country enforced a nationwide lockdown late last month to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Even some Indian government officials have held discussions with industry executives to discuss coronavirus relief measures via Zoom. One media report this week said the Indian government was advising its ministers not to use third-party software for sensitive meetings.
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India Says Zoom 'Not a Safe Platform' For Video Conferencing More

India Says Zoom 'Not a Safe Platform' For Video Conferencing

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  • Zoom 'Not a Safe Problem'?? (Score:5, Funny)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Thursday April 16, 2020 @06:42PM (#59956554)

    Yeah that definitely makes sense.

  • So what actually is a safe problem?

  • Sigh (Score:3)

    by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Thursday April 16, 2020 @06:49PM (#59956590) Journal

    And another anti-Zoom post right on time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by khchung ( 462899 )

      And another anti-Zoom post right on time.

      My bet is one or more /. editors shorted a lot of Zoom stocks.

    • At this point I'd like to hear some sort of full disclosure from this site, as in yeah here's another Zoom article by the way Microsoft sponsors us to post these, would you like to read this article about Teams?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by waspleg ( 316038 )

        Zoom, like TikTok, is Chinese malware. It takes 0 effort to find a dozen+ reasons why. There are also plenty of alternatives. It doesn't deserve the popularity it has.

      • So is a government banning a large player in the space not news in your books? what the fuck do you want, they have had a raft of security issues and a shit load of bad press, slashdot seems to have a lot of bias but it would be insane for there NOT to be a lot of zoom stories at the moment.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by khchung ( 462899 )

          So is a government banning a large player in the space not news in your books?

          Did you even read the summary?

          The government body also provided guidelines on how to avoid unauthorized users from carrying out malicious acts while using the tool.

          Did that sound like Zoom was banned? Why provide guidelines for using a banned tool?

          Furthermore

          One media report this week said the Indian government was advising its ministers not to use third-party software for sensitive meetings.

          Gee, didn't that sound like just normal precaution, and not really Zoom specific?

          "Not a safe platform"? Pray tell, which platform in existence is "safe"?

          Daily FUD articles about a company that recently had a big surge in stock price, and that didn't look suspicious to you. I have a nice bridge you may be interested.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      People are still using it, the word clearly hasn't got out that it's an insecure mess.

  • Of course it isn't a safe problem. (Score:3)

    by TigerPlish ( 174064 ) on Thursday April 16, 2020 @06:51PM (#59956594)

    Safe problems are moisture, corrosion, dead batteries in the lockwork (for you who trust your lockwork to a *battery*...)

    Oh. You mean it isn't a safe PROGRAM.

    Holy fuck where do we get our eds from.

  • I thought that a Zoom host could configure a session where they have to manually allow access, not to mention disconnecting attendees if they feel the need. They should also be able to disable screen sharing. So if the host is properly administering a session, is it secure?
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • How would the app be doing malicious things if you get it from Zoom? Don't they manage their own code? I run an Ubuntu desktop and run Zoom's Linux app on it. Is this something I should be concerned about?

    • I thought that a Zoom host could configure a session where they have to manually allow access, not to mention disconnecting attendees if they feel the need. They should also be able to disable screen sharing. So if the host is properly administering a session, is it secure?

      The host has many security settings available, which is generally what a lot of the anti-zoom articles have been geared towards: Zoom was setup to be very *convenient* by default, allowing anonymous participants with no password. But apparently assuming users should be responsible for their own security settings was a bridge too far for the public, so Zoom has adjusted the defaults to more secure settings. You can also require participants to be signed into zoom, you can kick them out, you can mute/disabl

  • Looks like another person trying to hard to get a story on slash first that proof reading was never done ðY'

  • Did Zoom botch it? (Score:3)

    by Mspangler ( 770054 ) on Thursday April 16, 2020 @07:13PM (#59956632)

    Did Zoom botch the marketing opportunity of a lifetime? From my perspective, it went this way;

    I never heard of Zoom.

    Zoom is a great video conferencing app to fill in during the pandemic.

    Zoom is a giant security hole that any bored teenager can waft through with trivial effort.

    Zoom is banned on all civilized worlds, (and now even Earth.)

    Did I miss something?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by redback ( 15527 )

      thats pretty much the summary of The Rise and Fall of Zoom.

    • Investors in all their wisdom buying the wrong stock symbol. That was the first I heard of it.

      -Those investors look brilliant now.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Matt ( 78254 )

      What amazes me about all these Zoom articles is that people are getting it to work at all, never mind security!

      I volunteer for a non-profit that does performing arts classes at several local private schools. Obviously we've been reduced to doing everything online, with mixed success. Some teachers are reportedly dealing with it well, but what I've seen personally with one weekly class and with administrative conferences, we get it to work about half the time if we're lucky. (I'm overhearing one such fail

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The massive security hole is that it shows the ID you need to join the conference on the screen, which ends up in every screenshot people post to social media.

      It also defaults to no password because it's more advantageous to them to "just work" than to be secure, especially these days when the advice is to use a good password that is then difficult to relay over the phone or manually transcribe from chat (because people don't know how to copy/paste, especially on a phone.)

      Overall Zoom is probably doing very

  • Kudos to Zoom? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bradgoodman ( 964302 ) on Thursday April 16, 2020 @07:17PM (#59956646) Homepage
    I gotta say - the entire world suddenly starts using zoom - and I've had 30+ people on calls where I'm on the "gallery" window watching all of their video at the same time....and I have yet to see any video or audio glitches. At a time when everyone else is home watchin Netflix, YouTube, PornHub, whatever... I can't believe the entire infrastructure hasn't buckled. Kudos to Zoom - our ISP - our long-haul (Tier-1 carriers) - Kudos to everyone!
    • That's truly a fair compliment. I can't say the same for Webex which multiple HUGE companies I work with use and every single one of them has buckled under the pressure many times.

  • Please do the needful (Score:3)

    by edi_guy ( 2225738 ) on Thursday April 16, 2020 @07:48PM (#59956706)

    And correct the headline

  • Safe, cheap, or easy to use. Pick two.
  • Zoom is safe enough if you lock down the session and as long as you do not have anything the CCP wants to know.

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