For the last few days, several individuals, private organisations and groups have been using Zoom video application to conduct video conferences with group members.
Even Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been using Zoom online meeting platform to conduct video conferences with his party leaders sitting in Hyderabad. He has even addressed a few press conferences on this Zoom platform.
However, on Thursday, the Union home ministry has warned the people against using this Zoom platform. In a general advisory to all sections of people, the Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord), under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), said the ZOOM meeting platform being used by private individuals is not secure.
The advisory states that the platform is not for use by Government officers/officials for official purposes. It makes reference to earlier advisories of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) and states that Zoom is not a safe platform.
The guidelines have been issued to safeguard private individuals who would still like to use the platform for private purposes.
The broad objective of this advisory is to prevent any unauthorized entry into a Zoom Conference Room and prevent the unauthorized participant to carry out malicious attacks on the terminals of other users in the conference, the advisory said.