MHA warns govt officials against holding Zoom meetings

Zoom meeting platform is not safe and it is not to be used for official purposes by government officials, the Home Ministry said on Thursday.

The warning, earlier issued by Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In), was reiterated by the Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord) of the Home Ministry in an advisory.

"This advisory states that the platform is not for use by government officers/officials for official purposes," a statement from the ministry said.

Zoom became a popular application for executives conducting meetings while working from home during the countrywide lockdown announced by the central government to contain coronavirus pandemic in the country.

"The document 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 ministry said.

It said the advisory has been issued to prevent any unauthorized entry into a Zoom conference room and to prevent unauthorized participants to carry out malicious attacks on the terminals of other users in the conference.