Government of India issues advisory to make meetings on Zoom safer

Despite a surge in userbase, Zoom has continued to make headlines across the world for its shambolic privacy policy and growing list of security breaches. Now, the controversy-ridden video conferencing has fallen under the radar of the Government of India’s Cyber Coordination Center or CyCord.

The agency recently issued an advisory for Zoom users in the country. The advisory suggests certain guidelines to make video meetings on the platform safer. The advisory details these steps to use Zoom safely:

• Set a new user ID and password for each meeting
• Enable the waiting room that will only allow users to enter when granted admission by the host
• Disable the join before host option
• Only allow screen sharing by the host
• Disable the option that allows participants to rejoin the meeting after being removed
• Restrict or disable the file transfer option when it isn’t required (We’d recommend disabling it permanently)
• Lock meetings, once all participants have joined
• Restrict the recording feature
• If you are administering the meeting, end the meeting rather than just leaving.

The advisory highlights ways to prevent unauthorised access to conference rooms and avoid DOS attacks by restricting users through passwords and access grants.

The advisory is specially meant for private individuals and organisations and comes after the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in) warned that Zoom was not safe.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has also confirmed that government officials will not use the app. Additionally, Google has also banned its employees from using the controversial video conferencing platform.